Annotated bibliography (40 points or 4% of total grade)
Annotated bibliographies provide interested readers with synopses of recent or important scholarly work or trade publications within a relatively narrow field of study. Completing the annotated bibliography should familiarize you with key terms, ideas and debates associated with your topic.
The research you will conduct should be part of a sincere, open-minded attempt to understand and master the controversy thoroughly—its history, context, and the various positions other researchers have taken on it. In other words, even though it is necessary to begin with your prejudices, it is not acceptable just to hunt for sources that support and justify your viewpoint; you’ve got to move beyond this initial horizon. You will need to use your acquired mastery of the controversy (through your extensive research) to develop your credibility as a group, while providing convincing examples and arguments to evoke various emotions in your intended audience.
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Research Requirements
While your annotated bibliography should contain upwards of 15 to 20 items, you are only responsible for providing summaries and annotations for 6 sources. You will likely gravitate to a few key texts as principle sources, around which you will employ many other sources in more secondary or tertiary roles. In any case, you are to have a devoted works cited page for your mashup project, and that should be distinct from your annotated bibliography.
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Of at least 15 total sources, 6 must be annotated:
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Formating
All 15-20 sources must be ordered alphabetically (by author or title) and cited correctly (using MLA or APA) in your annotated bibliography. At least six must ALSO be notated with TWO paragraphs:
Paragraph one includes a concise but sufficient summary of the source's arguments. These summaries must also include details pertinent to your argument while at the same time re-presenting the steps of the argument. Paragraph two includes your speculations on specific ways you might use this source in your documented argument, which ought to include quotes and page references. You can also discuss each source in light of other sources in your annotated bibliography. |
Identifying Types of Arguments
In your annotations of the source, be sure to identify the kinds of arguments used:
- Definition argument: used when there is little or no clarity concerning what something is or is not, often allowing us to pursue other arguments
- Causal argument: used when knowing the cause of an effect will allow us to impact the effect in some way
- Evaluation argument: used when there is uncertainty concerning the quality of something: Is Google making us stupid (Carr), or smarter (Shirky)
- Rebuttal argument: used when a given viewpoint fails to account for certain anomalies
- Proposal argument: used when a course of future action is required to alter a current situation
NoteYou may not find sources exactly on your topic, so you will very likely need to draw connections between published sources that are related to your topic and your own final project.
Because you will likely find more information than you can manage in a project of this scope, you’ll need to narrow your focus even further between the annotated bibliography and the research proposal. Since annotated bibliographies are largely academic, aim for peer-reviewed and substantial discipline-specific articles.
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Further ResourcesThere are lots of resources on writing annotated bibliographies online. Use them only as supplements to the above instructions.
See Chapter 6 from A Little Argument concerning how to document your various sources for the annotated bibliography How to Write an Annotated Bibliography And here at Purdue's Owl as well. Use APA or MLA format. |