This assignment could be a version of your "survey" or your "research literature review" for a thesis.  This particular version will be 3-5 pages long, expanded and deepened from Assignment 5.  

The main focus of this work is:

1. show knowledge of the area
2. recognize the main metrics used in your research area (note those you intend to use for your work)
3. display the open areas in the research (to show where worthwhile work remains to be done)  

Notice that you've probably covered item 1 relatively well in your first verison.  Now the focus is on determining, discovering or imposing a framework onto the work in the general area to

• give you a way to show the openings in the research for further work (including your question!)
• give you a way to measure progress of others to contrast with your own efforts (and show your success/failure in terms of the state of the art)
• give your advisor (and other readers) the confidence that you are doing "real" research in the area (you can find and explain patterns in other researchers' work)

As a side note, I suggest (strongly) that you consider a paragraph or two at the beginning of this assignment to explain the importance or relevance of the area (in $$ terms, in terms of research activity, national defence, things like that.)  Why would anyone be interested?  See if you can interest the reader in general.  

I also suggest (strongly) that you put together a table or matrix (or some visual way to demonstrate that you've imposed or perceived some sort of structure to the research in your area) to show your metrics and a "framework" that explains the major research work in terms of the progress made and showing all the open areas and where progress can be made.  At this point, I suggest you add a paragraph or two showing the research question you intend to pursue and place it firmly inside that framework.  You can show where your work stands in relation to the rest.  You may then want to reiterate the "importance" of your research question relative to the whole area.  It may be a small step, but take your stand.

Even for the basic survey writer, this is a serious and important task.  If you are writing a survey for your M.S., you must be able to characterize the work you survey with some sort of framework and metrics for measuring progress in that area.  The main focus is then to show the open ends where further work is needed and the likely directions the research should take.  You might think of yourself as advising other M.S. students in that area where the significant work is,  how it has been accomlished, how success has been measured and to show the important unanswered questions a student might now work on.