1. Short introduction to the topic – why is this topic relevant to contemporary planning practice?
2. Short description on your library search methodology – describe search engines, databases, and keywords used, etc. How did you fine-tune your search? What was your criteria for selecting the articles?
3. Short description on the coverage of the topic – How many articles did you find – did you find a lot of articles or very few? What kind of articles are there – long analytical articles, theory bases, or detailed individual case studies? Is the coverage increasing or decreasing over the past 10 years -show a trend using a chart.
4. Provide a detailed discussion on the content of articles – neatly organize and discuss the key planning issues, practice, theory and/or arguments in your chosen topic. These discussions should form the bulk of your paper, and should be organized using sub-headings. Sub-headings are not the titles of each of the articles you reviewed – the paper must be organized in a coherent and logical manner, and be analytical in approach rather than just a summary of each article.
5. Summarize the discussion and findings at the end. Most importantly, remember that you are not discussing the topic “generally”, you are discussing its coverage specifically in the Planning Magazine in the past decade. Planning magazine is the mainstream trade magazine for the planning profession in the US published by the American Planning Association, and read by most practicing planners.
