Annotated Bibliography--Project 4

* Final draft due March 31 (along with project 3)*

 

Assignment description:

This project consists of finding 10 (TEN) sources and writing an annotated bibliography for every source.

  • The ten sources MUST BE relevant to your final project.
  • Among them you MUST HAVE AT LEAST 7 academic journal articles. The other sources can be taken from the internet, from magazines, or from newspapers. However, they must ALL be relevant and GOOD sources (nothing from Cosmopolitan or Sports illustrated for example!)
  • You CANNOT copy summaries from abstracts!!!
  • NO quotations are allowed in your summaries!!
  • First draft of this project due March 24, 2003 (bring 2 copies of it. If you are not ready with your two copies and the three copies of your second draft of Project 3, it will count as one absence).

 

Format:

1. A general introductory paragraph or two. The intro should describe (in some logical order):

  • Your topic and sub-topics, and why you chose them,
  • Your research and your specific research questions,
  • How your sources will answer the research,
  • The scope of your research; areas you will NOT address in this research project,
  • Your point of view, your background knowledge of topic,

2. On the next page, list your ten sources in APA format (all double-spaced), in alphabetical order. After each one, write an annotation (80-150 words) that includes the following: .

  • The genre, type of source (whether it is a primary or secondary source; if it is a research study, what type of research was done,
  • A short summary of the content, main ideas,
  • Any other pertinent information (helpful characteristics or components, organization, such as a bibliography, index, or statistics).,
  • How this source will contribute to / fit into your research as described in your intro,
  • What is included and what is omitted, an evaluation of strengths and limitations of the article and what will be useful to you or not.

 

Grading Criteria:
Appropriate choice of sources (10 pts)
Proper use of APA format and general format (20 pts)
Effective introductory paragraph and summary of the sources (40 pts)
Critical evaluation of the sources (20 pts)
Use of academic language (10 pts)

 
Usefull words and expressions to use in your annotated bibliography: click here.
 
Example of an annotation (for a real annotated bibliography, click here, but this was a graduate project and is much longer than what you need to do. However, the format is the same except that all the underlined parts here must be italicized in your document):
 
            The main question I want to answer after finishing my research is: Should the U.S. legalize drug use? Other questions are: Do current drug policies help to solve problems associated with drugs, or create more problems in our society? What are some possible problems that legalization could create, and what are some possible advantages to it? Which drugs should be legalized and to what extent? Is legalization an idea worth trying, or is it too risky?
 I will focus mainly on two drugs: marijuana and cocaine. I will not describe in detail current drug laws, and I won’t go into detail about the properties of certain drugs and how they affect users physiologically. My main focus will be arguments for and against legalization, and possible scenarios if legalization were to take place. My point of view is that there are many flaws in the current drug policies and how they are enforced. I want to find out what scholars think could happen if drugs were legalized in the United States. I expect to find a lot of disagreement about legalization.