Annotated Bibliography OVERVIEW Choosing an issue and an audience for your major argument essay will require research, to include gathering background information to teach yourself about the issue, help you better understand the multiple perspectives on the issue, determine your own stance, and identify an audience who disagrees, in part or in total, with your stance. Setting out to gather this information is called exploratory research. You begin with a research question, but you dont have to arrive at a thesis by the time you have compile this annotated bibliography. Your goal is to use these sources to educate yourself, understand both sides of the issue, and learn who has decision-making authority over it. ASSIGNMENT Part 1: Compile your annotated bibliography List the five besthighly credible sources that help you understand the scope of a current and unresolved issue in your field and the audiences who have decision-making authority over it. (NOTE: To arrive at five great sources, you will probably review many more than that). All of these sources must be from sources with lengthy bibliographies (books, journal articles, government reports, white papers, etc.). Other sources including, major newspapers, trade publications, notable blogs written by credentialed authors, and high-end periodicals can be included in your homework assignments but should not be part of the annotated bibliography. The following is a suggested mix of sources: One source for background information about the issue (books are usually good for this purpose) One source that provides evidence about a potential audience, someone with decision-making authority over the issue you are investigating Two sources that offer differing perspectives on the issue One source the establishes why this issue is current and unresolved in your field PART 2: WRITING THE ANNOTATIONS The first step is carefully annotating your sources. The second step is writing a summary. The summaries were submitted for homework. Use the summaries to construct your annotations. For each of your sources, you must write a rhetorical prcis, a four-sentence summary or annotation that does the following: Sentence 1 Name of author and title of work [publishing information, date, and page numbers in parentheses]; a rhetorically accurate verb (such as asserts, argues, suggests, contends, believes, reports, indicates, insists); and a “that” clause containing the thesis or main argument of the work. Sentence 2 A brief but accurate explanation of how the author develops or supports the thesis, usually in the same order as was developed in the essay. Sentence 3 A statement of the authors apparent purpose, followed by an “in order to” phrase. Sentence 4 An explanation of how this source is relevant to your research and why you chose it. Jane Goodall in “Primate Research is Inhumane” (Animal Rights: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Janelle Rohr. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1989: 95-100) argues that most laboratories using primates engage in inhumane practices. She supports her argument through detailed descriptions of lab environments and draws special attention to the neglect of psychological comforts which these primates endure until they sometimes become insane. Her purpose is to speak on behalf of the chimpanzees in order to persuade her readers to see that if we do not fight for improvements in lab care, “we make a mockery of the whole concept of justice.” I chose this source because Goodall is a well-known subject matter expert and animal rights activist whose research shows animals can feel emotions, which provides an alternate perspective to other scholars who claim animals do not.
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