Lesson 12: Overview and To Do List

Overview

Lesson 12 explores academic research and includes the submission of the annotated bibliography.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to

• Locate reliable, academic sources using the library databases.
• Analyze, interpret, and evaluate secondary source material.
• Write evaluative annotations about academic source materials.
• Apply MLA style rules.

To Do List

In order to successfully complete Lesson 12, please do the following:

Lesson Check List

Readings

• “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dah lLinks to an external site.(link)
• “Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell (textbook)
• “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge ” by Ambrose Bierce Links to an external site.(link)

Activities

• Complete discussion: Topic Ideas
• Complete assignment: Annotated Bibliography

 

Presentation: What is an Annotated Bibliography

What is an Annotated Bibliography? 

A bibliography is a list of sources on a topic. An ANNOTATED Bibliography is a list of sources with annotations. Basically, an annotation focuses on a source; it’s a paragraph where you will discuss the source and evaluate its potential usefulness for your research (in this case, the research for the final essay).

See this resource for more about Annotated BibliographiesLinks to an external site..https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/annotated_bibliographies/index.html

 

The purpose of the annotated bibliography assigned in this module is to help you explore your essay topic idea and gather sources for your literature research essay assigned in Module 15.

What is the difference between an Annotated Bibliography and a Works Cited list? 

One thing a bibliography and a Works Cited page have in common is both have source citations listed in MLA style.  The difference, however, is that a bibliography exists on its own, it is every source used, while a Works Cited list is part of a research essay, it is every source cited. All sources on a Works Cited are there because they are used somewhere in an essay (directly quoted, paraphrased or summarized information must be cited).

Source citations from your Annotated Bibliography can certainly be copied to your research essay Works Cited page later if you use those sources in your essay—just don’t copy the annotations too.

What types of sources are needed for this Annotated Bibliography?

With college writing, it’s important to use valid source material. Searching for articles in the library databases is the best way to find reliable source material.

The information below from the assignment instructions, explains the specific types of sources you need to find.

To help focus your topic idea, this assignment requires sources that could work for various critical approaches. Find at least one source for each of the categories below :

• Biographical Information about the Author A source with information about the author’s life, such as an encyclopedia article.
• Historical Relevance This can be a source relevant to the time period the story is set or when it was written.
• A Social Issue relevant to the story or poem This source needs to focus on any social issue (such as class, race, gender, ageism, or cultural identity).
• A work of literary criticism This is a source written by a literary scholar that evaluates or interprets a literary work. The library databases are the best place to find literary criticism.

Feel free to include more than one source that fits any of the above categories, especially if you already decided on a topic idea for your literature research essay.

How do I search the TCC library databases?

This resource shows steps to search for articles in multiple databases at once: Using the TCC CatalogLinks to an external site.

You can also select specific databases to search. One of my favorite databases for searching literature topics is Literary Reference Center. In this database you can narrow the results by source types like “Biography” and “Literary Criticism,” which are types of sources you must locate for this assignment!

Searching the databases may feel challenging at times. Brainstorming a list of search terms can be helpful. For example, if I plan to write about Edwidge Danticat’s short story “A Wall of Fire Rising,” I would certainly use the author’s name and the title as search terms. But I would also search relevant topics such as Dutty Boukman, the 1791 Haitian Revolution, and Haiti.

 

Resources to help with the annotated bibliography (previously given in Modules 8 and 11):

• • Download Annotated Bibliography.pdf
  • Download Annotated Bibliography.pptx
  • Download Example Formatting for AnnBib.pdf

 

 

Individual Assignment: Annotated Bibliography

Assignment Overview

The purpose of this assignment is to practice academic research and gather sources for your Literature Research Essay.

Length

Your annotated bibliography needs a minimum of 8 MLA-formatted source citations with annotations. Each annotation should be 120-150 words.

Types of Sources Required

To help focus your topic idea, this assignment requires sources that could work for various critical approaches. Find at least one source for each of the categories below:

• Biographical Information about the Author A source with information about the author’s life, such as an encyclopedia biography or article focused on how life influenced work.
• Historical Relevance This can be a source relevant to the time period the story is set or when it was written.
• A Social Issue relevant to the story or poem This source needs to focus on any social issue (such as class, race, gender, ageism, or cultural identity).
• A work of literary criticism This is a source written by a literary scholar that evaluates or interprets a literary work. The library databases are the best place to find literary criticism.

Feel free to include more than one source that fits any of the above categories, especially if you already decided on a topic idea for your literature research essay.

Source Details

• Start by selecting the sources that you will be using for your research. Make sure that they are relevant, credible, and reliable.
• Sources must be valid for college level writing. Journal articles from the library databases should be included.
• Additional sources can be any type (website, documentary, personal interview, etc.) as long as they are relevant and credible. Do NOT use Wikipedia, Ask.com, About.com, Sparknotes.com, etc.

Annotations

• Below each source citation, you will write an annotation.
• Include:
  • a 3 to 5 sentence summary of the work (in third person, referring to the work in the present tense),
  • a one sentence critique of the work (in third person, referring to the work in the present tense),
  • and a one to two sentence evaluation of the work’s usefulness to your research (in first person) here as one paragraph.
  • The paragraph should have a first line indent, but the citations should have a hanging indent.
• Repeat the above steps for each source/citation.

See Module 11 for more resources about annotated bibliographies.

Guidelines

• It’s a good idea to read the Literature Research Essay instructions before beginning this assignment!
• Notice not all of the sources have to specifically focus on the literature itself. Rather, some focus on relevant themes or topics.
• Follow MLA formatting guidelines.
• List the sources in alphabetical order and use hanging indents.
• Be sure to vary your sentence beginnings for the annotations.
• Notice this assignment requires a minimum of 8 sources, but the literature research paper only requires 4. You don’t have to use all the sources from your annotated bibliography in the research essay!