Preparing the Annotated Bibliography

During the next two weeks, you will be responsible for independent reading and research for your final paper. On Wednesday, November 14, you will hand in a draft of your annotated bibliography. A revised version of your annotated bibliography will be included with your final research portfolio, which is worth 30% of your course grade.

Preparing your Annotated Bibliography

Your annotated bibliography is an opportunity to show off your current understanding of your topic and the research you have done so far. In addition, your annotated bibliography allows you to do some of the work of summarizing and synthesizing your sources before you begin writing a more analytical essay. As you prepare your bibliography, then, you will be coming up with material and structures that you may use in your research paper.

Elements of the Bibliography

Your bibliography should have a title and a 1-2 paragraph introduction, which should give a bit of background on how your topic is usually viewed and studied, as well as an explanation of how the entries have been classified into at least two categories. Your draft should include a minimum of five relevant sources on your topic.

Each category should have its own heading and entries in alphabetical order. Each entry should consist of the source information in appropriate format (MLA, APA, or CBE), followed by an annotation of the source. The annotation should comment on the content of the source as well as its significance to the topic and your research. Review Chapter 2 of They Say, I Say on the “art” of writing strategic summaries, rather than the typical list summary. That is, summarize in terms of the specific issue your research addresses.
Summarize your sources strategically, emphasizing how the author(s) answer your research questions or contribute to developing your main claim/argument.

Sample entry in MLA format

Bright, Sidney. “Ethical Behavior in Group Work in a College Composition Course: The Devil Never Took the Hindmost.” Journal of Collegiate Ethics 14 (1999): 12-27.

Bright found that her students showed advanced ethical development in social behavior in small groups in class. However, when these same students wrote essays, their ethical development did not appear as advanced. This research is significant because it shows how different contexts shape ethical behavior.

The Longman Handbook explains how to arrange bibliographic entries in MLA, APA, and CBE fomat. Please choose one of these styles to use for your research project, according to the primary disciplinary area of your research:
MLA style is used in the humanities.
APA style is used in social sciences.
CBE is used in natural sciences, physical sciences, and mathematics.

During today’s class, practice writing a bibliographic entry and strategic summary (see pp. 32-33 of They Say, I Say) of at least one source you uncovered from your library research.

Role for Writers of Research Paper

Last week, you explored your sense of your audience and purpose for writing the research paper. Another task for writers is understanding the kinds of roles they can play in doing a research project. Often the writer's role and purpose depend on the nature of the research question posed.

See the Course Blackboard (Assignments page) for some typical roles that research writers can play, each followed by some sample research questions (adapted from an original student handout on Roles for Research Writers by Jack Folsom).

Evaluating Electronic Sources for Research

The reliability and quality of information from Web sources has created much debate in the academic world.

Browse the following websites on human cloning:
Cloning Fact Sheet
Human Cloning-Embryo Style
Clonaid
State Human Cloning Laws

Together with a partner, evaluate the reliability and credibility of each site, using Cornell University's Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages as a guide. Which sites would be appropriate sources for academic research?

The Cornell site summarizes the application of the Five Criteria for evaluating websites as follows:

* Accuracy. If your page lists the author and institution that published the page and provides a way of contacting him/her and . . .
* Authority. If your page lists the author credentials and its domain is preferred (.edu, .gov, .org, or .net), and, . .
* Objectivity. If your page provides accurate information with limited advertising and it is objective in presenting the information, and . . .
* Currency. If your page is current and updated regularly (as stated on the page) and the links (if any) are also up-to-date, and . . .
* Coverage. If you can view the information properly--not limited to fees, browser technology, or software requirement, then . . .

You may have a Web page that could be of value to your research!

Check out the Santa Monica College Library site for more detailed information about Web research analysis.

Class Cancelled Monday (in lieu of instructor conferences)

English 106 (sections 02 and 03) will not meet on Monday, October 23, for instructor conferences. Your attendance at your scheduled instructor conference time will count for Monday's class attendance/participation.

CONFERENCE LOCATION: My office (Chapel 031)

CONFERENCE TIMES: Sign-up sheet for students in the morning (10:30) section is posted on my office door.

Students in the 1:00 pm section ONLY: Please post a comment below to request one of the following available conference times.

**The following conference times were still available as of 10:30 pm Sunday:

Tuesday, October 23--Times available: 1:45, 3:00 pm

Wednesday, October 24--Times available: 3:00, 3:15 pm

Other times are available by arrangement with instructor. Email requests to bridgeto@elmhurst.edu

The Rhetoric of The Research Paper

I think [students] should understand that in order to function as educated, informed men and women they have to engage in research, from the beginning of and throughout their work, as writers. I think that they should know what research can embrace, and I think they should be encouraged to view research as broadly, and conduct it as imaginatively, as they can. I think they should be held accountable for their opinions and should be required to say, from evidence, why they believe what they assert. I think that they should be led to recognize that data from "research" will affect their entire lives, and that they should know how to evaluate such data as well as to gather them. And I think they should know their responsibilities for telling their listeners and readers where their data came from. What I argue is that the profession of the teaching of English should abandon the concept of the generic "research paper"—that form of what a colleague of mine has called a "messenger service" in which a student is told that for this one assignment, this one project, he or she has to go somewhere (usually the library), get out some materials, make some notes, and present them to the customer neatly wrapped in footnotes and bibliography, tied together according to someone's notion of a style sheet.(11)

from Richard Larson, "The Research Paper in the Writing Course: A Non-Form of Writing," College English 44, 1982.

Refining Your Topic

Your final research project in English 106 will demonstrate some of what you’ve learned about the kinds of problems and issues that people argue about in academic disciplines, the types of sources and periodicals used for research, and the methods of research writing and documentation. A successful final research portfolio will demonstrate the effective use of sources to reach and support a research focus--that is, a claim that invites evidence, support, and debate.

Educational researcher Ernest Boyer argues that the “special task of the undergraduate college is to relate the values of liberal learning to vocation.” This is one way of saying that what you learn in college should relate to what you do. Today, I ask you to come up with some research questions that place your topic in a particular academic discipline that might investigate those questions.

Using the topic or issue that you plan to explore in your research paper, write at least 3 questions that might be asked by students and teachers in a particular field of study. Perhaps this field of study is your major. If you haven’t yet chosen a major, you may want to consider the field of study you plan to enter.

Here are some examples of how different perspectives and academic disciplines might shape the research questions you ask:

A sense of the issue’s history
Examples:
What is the history of the Internet? For whom and for what purposes was it originally developed? (might be asked by teachers and students in Computer Science)

Did role (if any) did the Roman Catholic Church play in resisting the Holocaust? (Theology/Religious Studies)

A sense of its social and economic implications
Examples:
How has the growth in online investing affected the U.S. stock market? (CS, Business and Economics)

How does extensive use of e-mail and online chat rooms affect people’s personal relationships? (Sociology)

Should Illinois public schools be funded through property taxes or by some other means? (Education, Policy Studies)

A sense of the moral issues attached to it
Examples:
Should the Internet be regulated? (CS)
How can public school teach moral values while respecting the cultural diversity of students? (Education)

See the Tidewater Community College's handout on research paper ideas to prompt your thinking about possible topics submitted by students from different academic disciplines. Note that not all of these topics are promising! However, they may prompt your thinking if you’re “stuck” for ideas.

Exploring Your Research Topic

If you are feeling confident in your choice of a particular topic for your research paper, you may only need to write about that topic. If you are unsure, explore two or three topics by responding to the following questions on your personal blog:

Part I: Exploration
1. Identify the issue or problem that you plan to focus on in your research project.
2. What is your personal connection to and interest in this topic?
3. What opinions do you already hold about this topic?
4. What knowledge do you already have about this topic. What are your main questions about this topic? What are you most curious about?
6. Within what scholarly discipline (such as history, biology, psychology) do you expect to do most of your research? How does this discipline approach or study this topic?
7. How could you research this topic outside the library (for example, through interviews and/or observations)?

Part II: Focusing
Write an initial claim, or an open-ended question, to guide your research on this topic. Make it specific but exploratory. Remember that a good claim opens up an area of inquiry about a topic; a claim should invite evidence, support, and debate.

Today, you will search for articles on your chosen topic for the synthesis essay, using Google Scholar. Consult Google Scholar Help for guidelines on searching for relevant articles and finding "related articles" once you have hit your target.

Guidelines for the Synthesis Essay (Assignment 2) are posted to the Blackboard Assignments page.

Wednesday's assignment:

Post links to at least three relevant sources to your personal blog. In addition, post a summary of at least one source, using the guidelines from They Say, I Say Chapter 1.