Literature Review Project

Research Prospectus

For the literature review project in English 112, we were asked to pose an ethical debate topic relevant to our chosen discipline, perform a survey of academic literature relevant to that discourse, identify reliable academic sources and analyze them, and then conclude by writing a review of the chosen sources in the context of our ethical debate. Accordingly, I chose to survey the literature discussing the ethics discourse in nuclear engineering.

This project began with the research prospectus (link here) where we were asked to choose an ethical question and describe the context of that question. This gave each us a starting point from which we could begin research and frame the final product: the literature review.

Literature Review

Finally, we were asked to write the literature review paper wherein we analyzed each source in depth and synthesized a narrative incorporating each author's positions on the facets of discourse for our chosen ethical question and discuss potential avenues for future discourse and research. We were also asked to write this document in a format typical of our chosen profession. I chose to use IEEE format since it is a common format in most engineering disciplines, especially electrical and nuclear engineering. The final product discussed issues such as environmental responsibility, waste disposal and considerations for future generations, safety versus economic interests, nuclear proliferation and geopolitical concerns, and public consent and decision making before concluding with a broad analysis of the issue and proposals for future research. Click here to view the document in Google Docs, or click here to see the first draft.