ATS3222 Chap.4 Mapping Your Research Interest Against the Literature
Mapping Your Research Interest Against the Literature
A1, the research mapping exercise, is worth 30% and asks for about 1,000 words, plus or minus 10%, excluding references. The instructions describe a short written piece that reflects on your research interests in relation to existing literature and scholarly debates.
It is explicitly not a formal literature review, and you do not need to identify a specific research gap.
The chapter sets out the guide questions, which must each be answered with the question written above the answer: your broad research topics or questions, the debates in a field that they belong to, the key ideas you want to interrogate, the innovations you might contribute, and the areas and skills you would need to develop, followed by a reference list on a separate page.
A minimum of ten references is expected, cited in an author-year style. It links the task to the Week 3 account of what a literature review is for.
The worked model answers the debates question for an interest in museum repatriation, showing the difference between a topic and a debate.
Practice tasks draft the innovation and skills answers, and the chapter maps the rubric: three criteria worth 30% each on the coherence of your interest, its intersection with debates and your engagement with literature, plus 10% for expression and referencing.
Although A1 has already been submitted this semester, the chapter remains useful: the debates and literature you mapped are the foundation of the context and significance section of A3.
Revisit your mapping answers, and any feedback you received, when you begin drafting the proposal.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Purpose of the research mapping exercise
- 02
Answering each guide question under its heading
- 03
Topics versus debates
- 04
Three purposes of a literature review
- 05
Innovation without feasibility limits
- 06
Skills and fields to develop
- 07
References and the marking rubric
Worked example · free
Rewrite a topic description as a debate
- +1Identify the first position: some scholars treat climate anxiety as an individual mental health problem requiring clinical support.
- +1Identify the opposing position: others treat it as a rational, collective response to a real threat, better addressed through action than treatment.
- +1Place your interest between them: you want to know how young people themselves describe the feeling, and whether their accounts fit either framing.
Key terms
- Research interest
- The broad question or area a student wants to investigate, stated clearly enough to connect to existing scholarship.
- Scholarly debate
- A question on which published researchers take different, argued positions.
- Literature review
- A survey of what is currently known in an area that picks out its main authors, theories and results and the gaps between them.
- Author-year citation
- An in-text referencing system, such as Harvard or APA, that gives the author's name and year of publication.
- Research gap
- Something not yet known or studied in a field, which the mapping task does not require you to identify.
Mapping Your Research Interest Against the Literature FAQ
Do I need to find a research gap for A1?
No. The purpose statement says the task is not a formal literature review and that you should situate your interests in academic conversations without needing to identify a specific research gap.
Must I include the guide questions in my submission?
Yes. Every guide question needs an answer, and the instructions ask you to copy each question in as a heading directly above your response, with the reference list on a separate page.
How many references does the mapping exercise need?
A minimum of ten references is expected. Use an author-year system such as Harvard or APA, apply it consistently in the text and the list, and include all the information a reader needs to find each source.
What does the rubric value most?
Ninety per cent of the rubric concerns substance: the coherence of your research interest, evidence of how it intersects with existing debates, and engagement with relevant literature, at 30% each.
How should I use the published sample answers?
Use them to see the structure the task expects: each guide question as a heading, scholars named in the text, and debates framed as arguments. Do not borrow their wording or topics, since the task asks about your own interests.
Assessment move
Collect ten to fifteen sources before drafting and sort them into the debates they belong to, noting each author's position in a single line. Draft the debates answer first, since the interest, key questions and innovation answers all depend on it. Then cut to the word limit by removing description of sources and keeping sentences that state positions and place your interest.
Finally, read your draft against the rubric's four criteria and mark where each is met.
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