HUMN1052 Australian Politics and Active Citizenship Autumn 2023
Further Information and FAQ on the Second Assessment, the Literature Review
The second and third assessments in this subject, the Literature Review and the Short Essay,
are designed to work together as a pairing. Together they form the Portfolio, as described in
the subject learning guide, pp 10-11. Before you start, you will need to decide which of the
three topics for 2023 you will study:
• Public policy and the Pandemic
• The Debate over The Indigenous Voice and its history
• Australia’s fraught relations with China
The Second Assessment, the Literature Review, forms the first part of the Portfolio. It should
be about 750 words, and is due at midnight, Friday 21 April, through Turnitin.
You need to reference using the Harvard referencing system. See the StyleGuide here:
https://library.westernsydney.edu.au/main/sites/default/files/pdf/cite_Harvard.pdf
For the literature review you need to conduct and write-up a brief literature-survey of
publications in the area of your chosen theme. There is much more detail on these topics, as
well as detailed reading suggestions with links, in the document ‘More Information on
Portfolio Topics and Tasks for Autumn 2023’, which is also available on vUWS, and which
forms a companion-document to the current guide.
For the literature-review, you will need to do the following:
1. Read over a significant range of readings for your topic, with an eye to the questions
for your topic outlined in the Style Guide and the ‘More information’ guide.
2. Sort out in your mind the different points of view expressed by the authors of each
reading (article, book chapter, report or news story) towards the topic.
3. For instance, on the pandemic: what (in the authors’ view) went right or wrong with
public policy in specific areas? Or else: how do the authors assess the potential
effectiveness of The Voice, and its likelihood of success? Or what (in the authors’
view) are the main causes of our tensions with China, and what is likely to happen
next?
4. Lastly, write up a survey of the material you’ve read, grouping the readings into
different points of view, and describing those points of view as briefly as you can. It’s
a point of view exercise, if you like.
You should write in continuous English prose – not dot-points. But you don’t need a formal
essay structure, or an introduction and conclusion. A formal essay-style essay-type structure
is unnecessary and would get in the way of the task.
The purpose is for you to get (and demonstrate) a sense of the range of opinions among
expert authors before you give us your own evidence-based opinions in the third
assessment.