Annotated Bibliography
What is an annotated bibliography? Essentially, an annotated bibliography is an organized way of taking notes. Dictionary.com defines annotation as:
- The act or process of furnishing critical commentary or explanatory notes.
- A critical or explanatory note; a commentary
and defines "bibliography" as:
- A list of the works of a specific author or publisher.
- A list of writings relating to a given subject: a bibliography of Latin American history.
- A list of writings used or considered by an author in preparing a particular work.
Thus, an "annotated bibliography" is a compilation of sources related to a given subject which includes critical or explanatory information.
Annotated bibliographies have many uses...First, they provide a compilation of sources with intelligent commentary; meaning, that not only do you have a summary of the content of an article, but you also have some comment as to why the article is (or is not) of use. Second, ABs provide a quick reference for useful definitions and key ideas (if you've done your job). Finally, ABs help to provide you an overview of the field so that you are not repeating work that's already been done, but can make a genuine contribution (or at least get a better grade on your current project).
Your Assignment: You will prepare an annotated bibliography on a topic of your own choosing -- this topic must be related to your research project and the AB will be the foundation of your research proposal. You will need a minimum of 10 scholarly sources for this assignment (you may use more, but you only need 10 to fulfill the assignment requirements). You may use no more than 2 review papers for your research project.
How do you write
an annotated bibliography?
So glad you asked! The four components of
an annotated
bibliographic entry are as follows:
- An APA
style
reference. -- Purdue
OWL RefWorks
NoodleTools
- A short paragraph of 3 or 4 sentences
indicating:
- The question or problem addressed by the article (the "topic" and RQ);
- The article's method of analysis (experimental? theoretical?);
- The article's thesis, conclusions, and/or recommendations.
- Your assessment of the
article's usefulness (global and
specific)
to your research goals
- for example, maybe you need only the bibliography or a specific discussion of a particular theory
- Any useful definitions or key ideas, in quotes, with PAGE NUMBER specified!
Example
Bennett, C.W., & Ling, D. (1977). Effects of Voiced-Voiceless Discrimination Training Upon Articulation of
Hearing-Impaired Children. Language and Speech, 20(3), 287-293[Electronic Version]
This
article questions whether voiced-voiceless discrimination training will
aid the articulation in hearing-impaired children. Six severely
hearing-impaired children ranging from 8-10 years of age were the
subjects. One group of 3 children received discrimination training on
the /ba-pa/ distinction and the second group of 3 children received
training on the /ba-pa/, /da-ta/, and /ga-ka/ distinctions. A
vibro-tactile aid was used so the individuals could feel the voice
onset time. Once the individual correctly distinguished between voiced
and voiceless stops for a certain criterion, the vibro-tactile cue was
reduced in intensity. The next step involved responding to voiced and
voiceless syllables by producing them. The results showed that the
training in audition alone does result in improved production. Subjects
in the first group showed greater generalization perhaps due to the
limited set in training. This may have helped the hearing-impaired
children focus on the critical variable of voice onset time.
“Our
hypothesis was that by providing training through audition alone we
could change the perceptual strategies of children who relied heavily
upon vision in such a way that their articulation would be improved
with regard to the voicing dimension.” Page 288.
[there were no
visual cues in this discrimination training therefore children needed
to focus on voice onset time to determine target sound. Supports the
auditory method of teaching hearing-impaired children.]
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