English 1A Annotated Bibliography Research Project: Contemporary Racial Politics
Over a decade into the twenty-first century, we find ourselves at a moment in history in which we remain unsure of the impact of race and class on a person’s fortunes. We have developed some potential research questions in preparation for our library orientation today and will do some additional searching of the catalog, the databases, and physical resources pre-selected for your review—research encyclopedias, books, and DVDs. (You will also be reminded that the bibliography for the Thompson article and the endnotes for the Wise book provide great suggestions for additional sources you could consult.) You will use these sources to engage in exploratory research—research in which students “wrestle with . . . problems . . . , redefine their problem, discover new ideas, and alter or even reverse their initial thesis” (Ramage 128). For this to be possible, you will have to be open to multiple viewpoints on a topic and find sources that reflect that variety. Sometimes the sources will be complementary and sometimes contrasting. In each case, you will need to read with the grain and against the grain to understand the source, its implications for your research question, and its relationship to the other sources you are finding.
As you listen to the librarian and your instructor today, keep in mind that you will need to find the following types of sources to support your research:
- An article from a reference encyclopedia, in print or online, or an online publication like CQ Researcher
- An article from an anthology of opposing viewpoints (Opposing Viewpoints, At Issue, and Current Controversies are all in the Opposing Viewpoints database, and there are print versions of anthologies containing the database articles in the library.)
- A database article from a magazine or newspaper
- A scholarly journal article (this can be found online or in a print anthology)
- A video, whether streaming or available in hard copy (DVD or VHS)
- A website (with original content, not content republished from a print source)
- OPTIONAL: Tim Wise’s Color-Blind (A book researched and written by one author)
You may not use:
- A book review (unless it is a review of a book you are using—count as eighth source)
- A website that merely reprints a news article published in a print version (Don’t use the website of a newspaper like The New York Times or San Francisco Chronicle, for instance.)
Research Project Outcomes:
As you pursue your topic, you will learn to:
- Develop a research question, typed at the top of the “Dashboard” for your project in Noodletools. (You will not have a thesis.)
- Use library research tools to find related sources
- Review your sources and take what Allyn & Bacon call “double-entry” research notes on them (p. 134-35—this will be done on Noodletools notecards that provide a direct quote in quotation marks first, then a paraphrase in your own words w/o any of your personal opinion, then your personal opinion in the “My Ideas” section. (Keep in mind that if your note is a summary, you will not have anything in the direct quotation box and should provide inclusive pages.)
- Create a bibliography in correct MLA style, using Noodletools to aid you in producing it and A Writer’s Reference to aid you in editing it
- Write a “critical preface” for your annotated bibliography
As you write your annotated bibliography entry, you will continue to work on:
- Writing summaries and evaluations (rhetorical and ideas) of each source
- Critiquing sources through reflection and in terms of their rhetoric and ideas
- Reading with the grain and against the grain and keeping an open mind
- Distinguishing your insight from the ideas of the author
- Improving transitions between sentences and paragraphs
- Polishing your grammar, avoiding fragments, run-ons and unnecessary commas
Compiling Your Annotated Bibliography:
To produce this formatted Annotated Bibliography, you will have to export the document from Noodletools and do the following:
- Add a page header and your heading.
- Add a title: “Annotated Bibliography and Critical Preface” (of course with no quotation marks per MLA style).
- Write your critical preface (one page).
- Hit the Enter key. The “Works Cited” title should then be centered, no more than two spaces below your critical preface, and your bibliographic citations and annotations should begin.
- Review the bibliographic entries for correctness. Make any necessary edits.
- Be sure that the annotation begins directly after the last number/word of your bibliographic entry with no extra spacing—you will type one space after the last period and then jump right in.
- Be sure that the first sentence of your annotation provides rhetorical information, which announces what kind of source you are describing: book, magazine, etc.
The format for each bibliographic entry and citation will be as follows: a) citation b) rhetorical information c) summary d) evaluation: rhetorical and ideas critique. Here is some advice for making sure your annotation is as good as you can get it:
- Citations: Look to your Writer’s Reference and/or the library website for the correct format for your various sources. See if what Noodletools has generated is in the proper format and has all the required information. For instance, you should not say “Print” at the end unless you actually held a printed copy of a magazine in your hand; enter the citation as a database source on Noodletools. You do not want the URL for a database source. Don’t forget the reprint information for opposing viewpoints sources (our previous lab and the library website is the best source for advice on this).
- Rhetorical Information: Look at the type of source, the credentials of the author, and the intended audience.
- Summary: remember that it should not contain your opinion, should use signal phrases, should cover the most important ideas of the entire source, should not use direct quotes, and should not use the author’s wording or sentence structure.
- Evaluation: Rhetorical and Ideas Critique: This is the place to assess the pluses and minuses of the article in terms of its rhetorical strategy and ideas. You have many questions to guide you in the Allyn & Bacon, but think about the quality and type of logos appeals, whether angle of vision appropriate or too limited, whether appeals are successful, whether anything is omitted, etc.
- Proofread for grammar, academic tone, typographical errors.
Assignment Requirements and Due Date:
The following page minimum assumes the formatting you have been taught: one-inch margins, Times New Roman 12-point font, a page header, a heading in MLA style, double spacing, and no extra spaces between heading lines, heading and title, title and paragraph, or paragraphs.
9-10 page annotated bibliography (including 1-page critical preface)
FIRST DRAFT OF CITATIONS, RHETORICAL INFORMATION, AND SUMMARIES DUE THURSDAY, MAY 1
FINAL DRAFT DUE TUESDAY, MAY 6
Works Cited
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing. 6th ed. Concise ed. Boston: Longman,
2012.