Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

The Process • Find a topic • Compose a research question • Find sources • Create citations for those sources • Create annotations for those sources • Submit a rough draft of your Annotated Bibliography • Turn in a final draft of your Annotated Bibliography

Keeping Your Research Organized • Keep a folder (electronic or hard) labeled “ENC1101 Research” • Within that collect copies of all the articles and books, etc. that you think may be useful for your argumentative essay • You want to find sources that are biased as well as those that are objective • You want sources that offer differing perspectives on your research question • You want to find popular and scholarly sources • You want to use at least one primary source (an interview, survey, or observation)

Keeping Your Research Organized • As you read each source, take notes on the information you are looking to summarize in the annotation: • What kind of source it is (article from a journal, book, DVD, etc.) • What type of source it is (scholarly or popular) • The perspective(s) on your research question it discusses • The credibility of the author and the publication • The main idea or claim of the source (will depend on if source is biased or not) • The logic of the source: • support for the main idea, claim, or perspective(s) • Evidence used for the perspective(s) • Assumptions made about your issue • Words or phrases that indicate bias or objectivity or too much reliance on emotion • How useful this source might be for you in building an argument

Scholarly Peer Reviewed The author’s tone is more objective More jargon/technical terms Authors are experts in that field More research is included Citations obvious Usually lots of text / not many pictures Popular Editor publishes May be more subjective Laymen’s terms/everyday words used Authors are often reporters Often little research Citation method often unclear Often has pictures/graphs Sources: Types of Publications* Remember you have to identify in your annotation what type of source it is: scholarly or popular

Credibility or ethos: The author and publication’s credibility How much do you trust the source? What credentials or experience does the source have regarding this issue? Is the figure well-known? Is there any reason you shouldn’t trust the author or publication? The Credibility of the Source

Emotional Appeal • Does the author use emotional reasoning? • If so, what emotions does he/she rely on? • Does the author responsibly use emotional appeals or does the writer try to overly rely on them?

Logos • Part of evaluating logic involves analyzing the reasoning of an argument • Logos provides an overall framework of which ethos and pathos are a part • Although logos may not inspire people as much as ethos and pathos it often keeps people from acting rashly or foolishly

Parts of an argument • Claim: Central argument (p. 141) • Grounds: Support for argument in the form of reasons • Evidence: examples, authorities’ statements, statistics, facts, theoretical examples • Assumptions: belief that connects the claim and grounds

Reasons • Reasons are statements that can be factual or opinionated • Claim: You should wear a heavy coat today • Reason: Because it is snowing. • Assumption: ?

Assumptions • Claims • Reasons • Assumptions • Arguments, even with clear claims and reasons, often don’t make much sense without assumptions • They are the glue that hold the reasons to the claim • They are sometimes explicitly stated but more often implied

Identifying Assumptions Claim: Bill Clinton was a good president. Reason: He was skilled at foreign policy. Assumption: Any president who is skilled at foreign policy is a good president.

Identifying Assumptions • Claim: You should visit Paris. • Reason: They have the world’s best art museums. • Assumption: You should visit a place that has the best art museums.

Assumptions • (a.k.a. “warrants”) refer to the values and beliefs people hold • Are opinions, not facts • Are shaped by our family, culture, education, region, friends, ideas, etc.

Practice • Practice identifying the claim, reason, and assumption(s) behind a source

Annotated Bibliography