Read the article and find the source

Elizabeth Nixon

STEP 2: Annotated Bibliography

The Annotated Bibliography is designed to introduce you to MLA Works Cited format and to give you the opportunity to read and familiarize yourself with various secondary sources before you integrate secondary research into your writing in Step 3: Secondary Source Integration.

Below you will find a list of objectives for the assignment. Your work should be single-spaced, typed in 12-point font, and set to 1” margins.

Objectives:

· You will find three or four secondary sources that are timely, useful, credible, and relevant to your primary source. Your work with these sources should help you revise and extend the work you completed in Step 1: Primary Source Analysis.

· All of your sources should be from a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal (we will discuss what this means in class).

· You will correctly use MLA Works Cited list format.

· You will demonstrate the ability to comprehend the central arguments of these sources.

· You will describe the sources’ relevance to your main argument.

Getting Started:

· Be sure that you understand the difference between a primary and a secondary source. See Writing Analytically, pg. 182 for help.

· Use your research question(s) from Step 1 to begin your search for secondary sources. For example, if you asked a question about how advertisers appeal to women, you might research secondary sources relating to gender or women’s studies. Keep in mind that research is not an exact science. Be patient and flexible throughout the process.

· Employ the OSU Libraries website--including databases such as Academic Search Complete, Lexis Nexis, or Google Scholar, as well as WorldCat@OSU--to find useful, timely, relevant, and credible electronic or print sources (see the library link on our course Carmen page for a list of databases). Consult Ch. 8 of Writing Analytically to assist you in the search and evaluation of secondary sources.

· Choose three or four secondary sources that you believe will relate to, support, or complicate claims you made in Step 1. Read these sources carefully to determine the authors’ main points and their relevance to your argument.

Completing the Assignment:

1. For each source, create a correctly formatted Works Cited entry in MLA style. See the MLA Handbook or the Purdue OWL (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/) for details.

2. After each entry, write a paragraph of at least 4-5 sentences that includes:

a. A description of the source (where it comes from, who wrote it, how a reader might determine its reliability, etc.)

b. A detailed summary of the author’s main argument. For instance, don’t simply say that an article is “about personal confidence.” What, specifically, does the article say about personal confidence?

c. An explanation of how the source relates to your argument. For instance, you might explain how this source supports, complicates, or disagrees with your claims, or you may describe which aspects of the source’s argument relate to your argument.

This assignment is due in the Carmen dropbox named Annotated Bibliography by 2/24 at 11:59 p.m.