Assignment 2: Annotated Bibliography
syllabus | calendar | data collection memo
Purpose
The purposes of this assignment are for you to...
- learn strategies for conducting textual research in a library, bookstore, or on the web,
- further practice research strategies for doing interviews, conducting surveys, and doing observations,
- learn the complex nature of your research subject,
- develop multiple perspectives about your subject and understand what motivates these perspectives,
- develop strategies for identifying the argument in a text and how others develop an argument,
- learn to critique the strategies that others use to develop an argument,
- understand why written texts are valued in the American University,
- develop strategies for determining the credibility of the source,
- practice the conventions of writing up citations,
- develop prelimanary answers to your research questions.
Instructions
Finding
Sources
In order to discuss the various strategies that different people and organization use to represent your subject in the Research Paper, you will want to look for for representations from different sources. Therefore, you will be required to find seven sources. Of these seven sources, you are required to have...
- at least two academic sources (e.g., refereed journal articles, published books),
- at least two popular sources (e.g., internet sites, newspaper, magazines),
- at
least one data collection (i.e., interview, obversation, survey).
Consider the research strategies that the instructor has provides in class and .
Examining
the Textual Sources
When you are determining the texts to use for your research, start by
looking at the research questions that you developed for your the Proposal:
Current Knowledge Assignment. Then read through the sources
and think about...
- the reliability and credibity of the work, what was the writers motivation to write this? what words and evidence does the writer use to support a represenation or argument?
- the place where the work is published, what is the reputation of the publication? why was the work published in this publication?
- the strategies the writer uses to represent the subject, what words are used to represent the subject? how does the publication that the work is in influence this representation?
- sources that pose similar or different representation, what patterns emerge that allow you to specualte why these simularities or differences exist?
Writing
the Bibliography
The final
draft of this paper will be submitted as a web page. Rememer that everybody
with internet access will access to your bibliography. As you draft, consider
your multiple audiences––the instructor, your peers in the class,
and many people around the world. Imagine that if someone typed your subject
into a search engine, your bibliography may appear. What do you want this
person to know? How are you going to represent your subject? How are you
going to represent yourself?
When you draft the Annotated Bibliography, you will want to...
- write a one
or two paragraph introduction that briefly explains
to your audience about your research interests (why you have put together
this Annotated Bibliography) and what you think that your audience will
learn if they were to look up the sources that you have listed.
- consider the
following instructions when writing entries for the textual sources.
These entries should
- be written in APA format (see NCH).
- include a summary of the text (identify elements such as the research question, the argument/representation, the significant evidence or points made, and any suggestions or calls to action)
- explain this source's relevance to your research
- provide a brief review of the article (your opinion about the sources usefulness with an explanation).
- be connected
to each other when it is relevant; show how the source is similar
or different to other sources that you are annotating.
- consider the
following instructions when writing entries for the data collection.
These entries should
- be written in APA format (see NCH), when applicable.
- include a brief summaries of your data collection process; this is a three or four sentence summary of your Data Collection Memo.
- report the relevant findings; you do not have to report everything that you learned. Explain this relevance to your research. Use visuals, if applicable.
- connect it
to the textual sources where it is applicable.
- create a link to your email so that your audience can contact you about your research.
You can compose the text in MS word and convert it into or you can use Netscape Composer to format the web page.
Criteria
- In
this assignment, you should...
- make your audience aware of the purpose of this bibliography
- provide your audience with sufficient details about each text; your audience should be able to know the text's argument/representation, how it is supported, and your opinion about the text.
- make a clear connection between each entry and overall purpose of the annotated bibliography
- use
correct APA citation conventions
- For Thursday July 12, 2001, bring 3 hard copies of your Annotated Bibliography to class.
- Also send the instructor the URL of the web page where your bibliography is located.
Sample Entry
Leki,
I. (1991-1992, Winter) Building expertise through sequenced writing assignments.
TESOL journal, 1, 19-23.
In
this article Leki argues that teaching language as small, separate skills
has been ineffective;
instead the a language learner should be introduced to a more holistic
and organic approach to
learning the language, especially in writing. She proposes a sequence
of writing assignments
that instructors of underprepared students can use in their curriculum.
The assignment
sequence asks the students to gain expertise on a single topic that the
student will work with
for the length of the semester. The students are expected to write five
assignments (Current
Knowledge, Summaries, Survey, Interview with an Expert, and a Final Report)
on this subject.
The focused nature of this assignment sequence teaches students strategies
for collecting data
and
synthesizing it into an informed opinion. Also, since each assignment
builds on the previous
assignment, Leki's proposed curriculum can be used to demonstrate strategies
of revision. The
expertise the student gains by this curriculum should make students feel
more confident about
articulating their ideas in writing. A more directed version of Leki's
assignment sequence would
be appropriate to use in the multicultural class proposed by Silva and
Matsuda (1999).