What is an annotated bibliography

Make Contact
Your first task this week is to make contact with a parent or caregiver to ask permission to observe/interview their child for your final project due Wednesday of week 4.  For this project the child should be between the ages of 3 to 10. An informed consent is required for this assignment.

Annotated Bibliography
In preparation for your final project it will be important that you locate a number of scholarly sources on child development prior to conducting your observation/interview as the knowledge gained from these articles in addition to your text will help you develop the questions and activities that you will use during the observation/interview. You should try to focus these articles on the age range for the child you are going to observe/interview.

Your second task for this week is to create an annotated bibliography where you will locate and summarize 8 scholarly sources related to child development that will help you to prepare for your observation/interview.

What is an annotated bibliography?

It is an organized list of sources (referenced in APA format and alphabetical order), such as books, journals, newspapers, magazines, reputable web pages, etc., each of which is followed by a summary or description of each source.

Annotations may consist of all or part of the following list of items, depending on the purpose of the bibliography:

• Describe the content (focus) of the source
• Describe the usefulness of the source
• Evaluate the reliability of the source
• Discuss any conclusions the author(s) may have made
• Note key points from article relevant to your final project
• Describe your reaction to the source

What does an annotated bibliography look like?

The following in an example source from an annotated bibliography:

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 (4), 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.

What is an annotated bibliography

General Psychology

Bibliography Assignment

Prof. Sullivan

The purpose of this assignment is to learn how to do scholarly research in the area of Psychology. For additional instruction see http://quincycollege.libguides.com/soc101

Due:

What is an annotated bibliography?

An annotated bibliography serves two purposes – (1) uncovers the documented research others have already done on this topic (“literature review”) and (2) organizes this large body of knowledge so that a researcher can use it later to help formulate his or her own project.

The “lit review” is one of the earliest steps in any research project. You want to know what has been written on this topic already. Who are the experts and what have they found so far? By uncovering what has been written on this topic already, you could then narrow your topic down to something that will make a new contribution to the field.

For this assignment, then, you are NOT writing a whole paper or doing all the original research for a project. You are simply getting more familiar with one subfield of sociology and you are documenting what others have already said about the topic in a way that prepares the ground for further research.

Instructions

From the following list of (textbook) topics, choose one topic and assemble a bibliography of 4-5 annotated citations.

Topics to choose from: Brain and Behavior (2) ● States of Consciousness (4) ● Learning (5) ● Memory (6) ● Thinking or Intelligence or Language (7) ● Human Development (8) ● Personality (10) ● Psychological Disorders (12) ● Psychological Therapies (13)

Narrow down your topic: Make your topic more specific by choosing a subtopic from the chapter. For example, from chapter 8 on Human Development, you could choose to research Parenting Styles (p. 306). Use “How”, “What”, “Where”, “Why”, and “When” questions to further narrow your topic.

Choosing good sources: You must use “scholarly” sources. A good way to tell if your source is scholarly is to look at the name of the publishing house. Scholarly publishing houses are usually associated with a university (e.g. Indiana University Press, Yale University Press). A scholarly journal is ‘peer-reviewed’ and typically has a number of footnotes at the end of each separate article. It may also have the word “journal” in its title. When in doubt, ask the librarian or a classmate. Avoid sources that are only found on web sites, such as CQ Researcher. Avoid Wikipedia and other wiki sites on-line. Avoid popular magazines like Newsweek or Time.

Answer these questions in your annotation

Annotate your bibliography. List each source and provide 5-6 sentences that paraphrase the main point of each book or article. Try to explain what makes this source different from all others on your list. What is the question the researchers asked? What method did they use to do their research? What data did they discover? What were their findings or conclusions? Make each entry in your bibliography stand out so that you can recall what was special about that source. You must use your own words for this. Do not copy straight from the back of a book or any portion of the text of the book.

Follow the (APA) format:

Two helpful websites for style guides:

Citation Machine

Purdue English Dept.

Additional Instructions

· Alphabetize the list by last name of the author.

· Title the page “Annotated Bibliography” and put your name underneath.

· Typed, double spaced, 10-12 pt. font. One inch margins. No cover page needed but be sure to put your name on the page.

· No report covers, folders, or binders. Upload to get full credit.

· Refer to the student sample for additional guidance.

Bibliography Rubric

_____/50 Four to Five scholarly sources on one topic (10 pts for each source)

_____/30 Summaries – distinctive original summary of most important points of article

_____/15 Citation style correct

_____/5 Alphabetical order (by last name of first author)

_____/100 Total