This assignment will require you to summarize six academic sources related to the research topic you selected for the Research Review. If you haven’t yet, you should review the directions posted in the Research Review module before starting this assignment. Those directions explain everything you need to know to get started with your research.
Directions
There are three steps for this assignment:
Step 1: Describe Your Research
I’d like you to present your research question and a brief description of your research interest on a separate page at the beginning of your assignment. You do not need a “polished” research question that perfectly represents the focus of your research. At this stage of the process, it’s fine if it’s very broad. A question like “How does gender affect mental health?” could be answered in many different ways and is very broad but it is perfectly acceptable to get you started with this assignment (and your research in general).
For the description of your research, I’d like you to write a brief description of your interests, the relationship you think exists between the concepts you’re interested in (those would be gender and mental health in my example above), and how you think you actually measure those concepts. This will require you to familiarize yourself with the GSS data so you have some idea of what measures are actually available to you.
Step 2: Find Your Sources
Next, you need to find six academic sources that will be useful for your research analysis. All six need to be strong sources that will help establish a foundation for your research. They must be scholarly (peer-reviewed) and help to answer your research question. I highly recommend that you only use academic journal articles for this assignment. Books are far too long. Chapters in an edited volume are also acceptable but are more difficult to locate than journal articles.
If you need help finding sources, please let me know. You will need to use the library databases to find sources and it is highly unlikely that Google Scholar alone will be sufficient for finding them.
Step 3: Create Your Annotated Bibliography
For the third requirement, you need to create an annotated bibliography of the six sources. The bibliography should contain an ASA style reference for each article, followed by a summary of the source. Your summaries should address the following:
The primary purpose of the source
How the researchers collected data or where the data came from
This is only appropriate for sources based on research. It is not necessary for a literature review or theory piece. If you are summarizing something other than a description of research, please explain what type of source it is
The primary findings
For a non-research source, this will just be the primary claims they are making
Do not describe all of their findings in detail, the point is to briefly summarize the most important points
When you write your summaries, you want to focus on the details that are most relevant to your research interest. An annotated bibliography is intended to be a tool you use to help organize your sources and ideas. You want to make sure you are taking note of things that you may want to reference later.
It’s fine if your summaries are longer than 150 words but they shouldn’t be any more than 250. The point of an annotated bibliography is to briefly summarize the main points from a source and take note of things that are most relevant to your paper. They are not intended to be lengthy summaries.
Your summaries need to be written in your own words- no quotes or paraphrasing.
You must use ASA style formatting for your entries. If you are not familiar with that, I will share some guidelines you can reference. I will have those available later in the semester. If you need assistance before then, please reach out to me.
You will find an example of your annotated bibliography should be formatted here Download here.
I am only sharing this so you have some idea of the general formatting.
Some of my entries contain quotes but yours should not.
Formatting Requirements
Length: Minimum 150 words per summary, no more than 250
Line spacing: Double
Margins: 1.25 inch
Font: Times New Roman, 12 point
Include word count after each bibliography entry
Include your research question and a short description of your interest at the beginning of the assignment
Must include six sources
Reference entries must be formatted using ASA style requirements
Summaries should be written only in your own words
Plagiarism Checking
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