Annotated Bibliography
Writing 1000/Lima Fall 2020
Type: Individual
Due: on Moodle
Weight: 10%
Length: Max. 150 words per entry, excluding citation.
Objectives:
This assignment is an opportunity for you to engage in research to map out the resources and to receive feedback on sources you have chosen to support your Research Paper claim.
To do this effectively you will need to find sources that support your research, using techniques as described in the library modules on Moodle. You will retrieve websites, scholarly journal articles, and books relevant to your approach. This process is not a simple one; you cannot simply find “the answer”. However, as you continue your reading, you will refine and adjust your research question to better match the current state of knowledge and the knowledge deficit. Annotation is a common academic technique that allows others to see the usefulness of these sources.
First Draft is due on Monday, Oct. 26th at 23:59. I will be providing feedback on all sections of the bibliography for your review. You will then be responsible for reading feedback and making necessary adjustments to the sections. Moreover, you should also be giving feedback to peers and receiving peer feedback, as well.
The Final version is due on Wednesday, Nov. 3rd at 23:59.
Instructions:
1) LOOK at the library links on Moodle– Academic Writing & Integrity. If you come to me for help with this assignment, I may refer to these resources.
2) LOOK FOR SOURCES exploring the research topic in our library. Note – the sources you use must be scholarly or reliable sources. Look for both.
- BACKGROUND sources, explaining the state of knowledge (what has already been affirmed in the field), providing suitable definitions if those have been agreed upon, and providing any useful statistics, and
- SCHOLARLY sources that discuss the current claims and provide interpretations and possible solutions. These must be peer reviewed.
3) NARROW YOUR SOURCES down to 6: No more than ¼ of the sources can be background sources. That means most of your sources (3/4) will be scholarly sources.
4) CITE THOSE SOURCES in correct APA format. Ensure your citation matches APA reference style.
5) CREATE AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. Follow each citation created in step 4 by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph: the annotation. Here you inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. Annotations are usually about 150 words each.
These annotations should include several sentences that
- Summarize the contents of the source (include thesis, methods, conclusion).
- Discuss how this work is useful to your research topic.
You could also …
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the argument.
- Comment on the intended audience.
- Compare or contrast this work with another you have cited.
- Evaluate the authority and background of the author(s).
6) Revise your annotations and give feedback to your peers. Resubmit your final draft by the deadline.
Annotations vs. Abstracts. Abstracts are the descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles or in subscription databases. Annotations, on the other hand, are descriptive and critical; they discuss the author’s point of view, clarity, appropriateness of expression, authority, etc. Do not simply repeat an abstract for your annotation – that would be plagiarism!
Example of a Citation and Annotation in APA format:
London, H. (2004). Five myths of the television age. Television Quarterly 10(1), 81-89.
Herbert London, the Dean of Journalism at New York University and author of several books and articles about the television industry, explains how television contradicts five commonly believed ideas. He uses specific examples of events seen on television, such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, to illustrate his points. His examples have been selected to contradict such truisms as “seeing is believing”; “a picture is worth a thousand words”; and “satisfaction is its own reward.” London does not refer to any previous works on the topic, and his folksy style does not engage any of the longer-term studies on the medium of television. Grounded in the anecdotal, this article is of limited use. However, several of his classifications emerge in others’ thinking as well (the ‘truth’ of pictures, the role of visual appeal: see Markum; Tzatch). This should be helpful in thinking about the purpose of television’s “rhetoric.”
Adapted from https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/143377/assignments/206871
