Essay 2 ENG

Goal: The goal of an annotated bibliography is to help you think about your sources and their value. The Online Writing Lab at Purdue sums it up nicely (emphasis added):

Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. Just collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you're forced to read each source more carefully. You begin to read more critically instead of just collecting information…To help you formulate a thesis: Every good research paper is an argument. The purpose of research is to state and support a thesis. So a very important part of research is developing a thesis that is debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated bibliography can help you gain a good perspective on what is being said about your topic. By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you'll start to see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and you'll then be able to develop your own point of view  (Purdue OWL).

We’ve talked this semester about the importance of creating knowledge, rather than just repeating/transcribing other people’s knowledge. In order to know where/when/how you can add original ideas, it is important to know what has been said before you. The annotated bibliography will help with that.

"Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Annotated Bibliographies. OWL at Purdue, n.d. Web. 29 May 2017.

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following.

· Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is.

For more help, see our handout on paraphrasing sources.

· Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?

For more help, see our handouts on evaluating resources.

· Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

"Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Annotated Bibliographies. OWL at Purdue, n.d. Web. 29 May 2017.

An example, taken from OWL@Purdue: Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor

Books, 1995. Print.

Lamott's book offers honest advice on the nature of a writing life, complete with its insecurities and failures. Taking a humorous approach to the realities of being a writer, the chapters in Lamott's book are wry and anecdotal and offer advice on everything from plot development to jealousy, from perfectionism to struggling with one's own internal critic. In the process, Lamott includes writing exercises designed to be both productive and fun.

Chapters in this text could easily be included in the curriculum for a writing class. Several of the chapters in Part 1 address the writing process and would serve to generate discussion on students' own drafting and revising processes. Some of the writing exercises would also be appropriate for generating classroom writing exercises. Students should find Lamott's style both engaging and enjoyable.

Nuts and Bolts: For each of your 7 (minimum) sources (Five Scholarly, Two Non-scholarly), please provide 200-250 word annotations which describe, briefly:

· the relevant content of the source

· what it contributes to the conversation/discourse of your topic

· in what way it is valuable or useful for you in your project.

· Additionally, you should discuss what makes this source, in your eyes, credible (and, for your scholarly sources, how you know it is scholarly).

Generally, there are 3 types of annotations used – summative (this is what it says), evaluative (this is how useful it is), and reflective (this is what I used it for).  Your annotations for this assignment should focus on a combination of summative and reflective.

You may use either MLA or APA citation style (pick one and be consistent). The format should be as follows: A complete bibliographical citation followed by a single-spaced and thorough annotation.

What is Synthesis?

When researching, you will likely find more than a single source or voice discussing any given topic. 

How you, the reader/writer takes multiple voices, evidences, perspectives, etc and uses them as a basis for drawing conclusions is called Synthesis.

Synthesis means making your sources talk 

How?:

· taking different sources considering their ideas, findings, data, etc

· using that as the basis for forming new ideas, findings, conclusions, etc of your own.

Why Synthesize?

Research is a conversation, one that has been going on for a very long time amongst many speakers.

Synthesis is a way for writers and researchers to enter into the conversation itself by using the many voices (sources) as a platform for formulating new ideas.

Synthesis is how the conversation continues into new directions.