Annotated Bibliography for BIO 401:
For this assignment, you will create an annotated bibliography for your research topic for at least 7 sources.
What is an Annotated Bibliography?
An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources (like a reference list). It differs from a straightforward bibliography in that each reference is followed by a paragraph length annotation, usually 100–200 words in length.
Depending on the assignment, an annotated bibliography might have different purposes:
• Provide a literature review on a particular subject
• Help to formulate a thesis on a subject
• Demonstrate the research you have performed on a particular subject
• Provide examples of major sources of information available on a topic
• Describe items that other researchers may find of interest on a topic
What should I do for this course?
For BIO 401, you have selected an ethical question of interest and you are constructing arguments that either support or refute your ethical question (i.e. “it is ethical because…” OR “it is not ethical because…”). This annotated bibliography will help summarize and organize your research into your ethical topic.
You will summarize the information in each of 7 sources individually AND relate it to your ethical question. Describe specifically how you will use this article within your final paper. Does it add relevant facts of scientific knowledge to help explain the scope of the ethical issue? Does it provide pro or con arguments? What is useful in particular about the information in this article? So, each annotation has two parts:
1. Summarize the information in the article
2. Describe how it will contribute to your paper
What is the format for this annotated bibliography?
References should be in alphabetical order and formatted in APA style (see web tutorial). See below for an example.
Breeding evil. (2005, August 6). Economist, 376(8438), 9. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com
This editorial from the Economist describes the controversy surrounding video games and the effect they have on people who use them. The article points out that most critics of gaming are people over 40 and it is an issue of age not of the games themselves. While the author briefly mentions studies done around the issue of violence and gaming, he does not go into enough depth for the reader to truly know the range of studies that have actually been done in this area, other than to take his word that the research is unsatisfactory. The author of this article stresses the age factor over violence as the real reason for opposition to video games and stresses the good gaming has done in most areas of human life. This article is a good resource for those wanting to begin to explore the controversy surrounding video games, however for anyone doing serious research, one should actually examine some of the research studies that have been done in this area rather than simply take the author’s word that opposition to video games is simply due to an issue of generational divide.
Waite, L. J., Goldschneider, F. K., & Witsberger, C. (1986). Nonfamily living and the erosion of traditional family orientations among young adults. American Sociological Review, 51, 541-554.
The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to test their hypothesis that nonfamily living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans, and expectations, moving them away from their belief in traditional sex roles. They find their hypothesis strongly supported in young females, while the effects were fewer in studies of young males. Increasing the time away from parents before marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about families. In contrast, an earlier study by Williams cited below shows no significant gender differences in sex role attitudes as a result of nonfamily living.
