Assignment: Annotated Bibliography

Submit: Annotated Bibliography

This week culminates in your submission of an annotated bibliography that should consist of an introduction, followed by two quantitative article annotations, two qualitative article annotations, and two mixed methods article annotations for a total of six annotations, followed by a conclusion.

An annotated bibliography is a document containing selected sources accompanied by a respective annotation. Each annotation consists of a summary, analysis, and application for the purpose of conveying the relevance and value of the selected source. As such, annotations demonstrate a writer’s critical thinking about and authority on the topic represented in the sources.

In preparation for your own future research, an annotated bibliography provides a background for understanding a portion of the existing literature on a particular topic. It is also a useful precursor for gathering sources in preparation for writing a subsequent literature review.

Please review the assignment instructions below and click on the underlined words for information about how to craft each component of an annotation.

• Use the Walden library databases or a credible source to search for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research articles from peer-reviewed journals on your topic of interest.
• Before you read the full article and begin your annotation, locate the methodology section in the article to be sure that it describes the appropriate research design.

1. For quantitative research articles, confirm that a quantitative research design, such as a quasi-experimental, casual comparative, correlational, pretest–posttest, or true experimental, was used in the study.
2. For qualitative research articles, confirm that a qualitative research design or approach, such as narrative, ethnographic, grounded theory, case study, or phenomenology, was used in the study.
3. For mixed methods research articles, confirm that a mixed methods research (MMR) design was used in the study. There are several design classifications in MMR; some examples of MMR types or families of design are parallel, concurrent, sequential, multilevel, or fully integrated mixed methods design.

• Prepare an annotated bibliography that includes the following:

1. A one-paragraph introduction that provides context for why you selected the six research articles you did: two quantitative, two qualitative, and two MMR.
2. A reference list entry in APA Style for each of the six articles that follows proper formatting. Follow each reference list entry with a three-paragraph annotation that  includes:
3. An application as illustrated in this example
4. An analysis
5. A summary
6. A one-paragraph conclusion that presents a synthesis of the six articles.
7. Format your annotated bibliography in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced. A separate References list page is not needed for this assignment.

Application

Finally, the last part of each annotation should justify the source’s use and address how the source might fit into your own research. Consider a few questions:

· How is this source different than others in the same field or on the same topic?

· How does this source inform your future research?

· Does this article fill a gap in the literature?

· How would you be able to apply this method to your area of focus or project?

· Is the article universal?

First person may be appropriate to use in an Application paragraph of the annotated bibliography, but doing so will depend on what aspects of the article you are discussing and faculty preferences. For example, if you are discussing how the article is applicable to your research project, first person may be appropriate. If you are talking about how the article relates to the literature or field as a whole, first person may not be appropriate. In all cases, be sure to follow our guidance on 

appropriate use of first person

.

Basics of Synthesis

As you incorporate published writing into your own writing, you should aim for synthesis of the material.

Synthesizing requires critical reading and thinking in order to compare different material, highlighting similarities, differences, and connections. When writers synthesize successfully, they present new ideas based on interpretations of other evidence or arguments. You can also think of synthesis as an extension of—or a more complicated form of—analysis. One main difference is that synthesis involves multiple sources, while analysis often focuses on one source.

Conceptually, it can be helpful to think about synthesis existing at both the local (or paragraph) level and the global (or paper) level.

Local Synthesis

Local synthesis occurs at the paragraph level when writers connect individual pieces of evidence from multiple sources to support a paragraph’s main idea and advance a paper’s thesis statement. A common example in academic writing is a scholarly paragraph that includes a main idea, evidence from multiple sources, and analysis of those multiple sources together.

Global Synthesis

Global synthesis occurs at the paper (or, sometimes, section) level when writers connect ideas across paragraphs or sections to create a new narrative whole. A 

literature review

, which can either stand alone or be a section/chapter within a capstone, is a common example of a place where global synthesis is necessary. However, in almost all academic writing, global synthesis is created by and sometimes referred to as good cohesion and flow.

Synthesis in Literature Reviews

While any types of scholarly writing can include synthesis, it is most often discussed in the context of literature reviews. Visit our 

literature review pages

 for more information about synthesis in literature reviews.

Critique/Analysis

After each summary, your annotations should include a critique or analysis of each source. In this section, you will want to focus on the strengths of the article or the study (the things that would make your reader want to read this source), but do not be afraid to address any deficiencies or areas that need improvement. The idea of a critique is that you act as a critic—addressing both the good and the bad.

In your critique/analysis, you will want to answer some or all of the following questions (taken from the 

KAM Guidebook

):

· Was the research question well framed and significant?

· How well did the authors relate the research question to the existing body of knowledge?

· Did the article make an original contribution to the existing body of knowledge?

· Was the theoretical framework for the study adequate and appropriate?

· Has the researcher communicated clearly and fully?

· Was the research method appropriate?

· Is there a better way to find answers to the research question?

· Was the sample size sufficient?

· Were there adequate controls for researcher bias?

· Is the research replicable?

· What were the limitations in this study?

· How generalizable are the findings?

· Are the conclusions justified by the results?

· Did the writer take into account differing social and cultural contexts?

Formatting

General Format

The format of an annotated bibliography can change depending on the assignment, but the typical format is a list of reference entries (see 

reference list

) with each entry followed by an annotation. However, be sure to ask your instructor for any course-specific requirements that may vary from the general format.

Your annotated bibliography as a whole should follow these guidelines in formatting:

· Alphabetized by author. Just as you would in a reference list, be sure to put your sources in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names.

· No headings. Because you will be discussing one reference at a time, there is no need for headings between sources or paragraphs.

· Brief. Annotations are usually one to three paragraphs. Remember, this is an annotated bibliography, not a research paper. Try to keep your annotations concise and clear.

Annotation Format

Each reference on your list should have an annotation that includes a summary, a critique or analysis, and an application. Annotations are often formatted in three paragraphs to ensure that the writer includes all three sections.

However, there are a few things to keep in mind as you write each annotation:

· No citations. You do not need to use citations within an annotation because the source of your information is clear (and listed above your annotation). Also, because each annotation is specific to only one source, you should not refer to any other sources in the annotation.

· No direct quotations. Because annotations give your summary, analysis, and application, there is no need for you to use direct quotations. An annotation is meant to be your own interpretation of the information.

· No referrals to the first or second person. Remember to be objective and remove yourself from your annotations. Annotated bibliographies do not allow for the use of I, me, my, we, our, you, or us.

· No reference list. Because your sources are already listed in reference format, there is no need for an additional list; it would be redundant.

Like all Walden assignments, annotated bibliographies should be 

doubled-spaced

, in Times New Roman font, and use appropriate 

reference list formatting

 (including 

hanging indents

) for the source information. 

Example

The example annotation below includes the citation, a summary in the first paragraph, the critique/analysis in the second paragraph, and the application in the third paragraph.

Gathman, A. C., & Nessan, C. L. (1997). Fowler’s stages of faith development in an honors science-and-religion seminar. Zygon, 32(3), 407–414. Retrieved from http://www.zygonjournal.org/

The authors described the construction and rationale of an honors course in science and religion that was pedagogically based on Lawson’s learning cycle model. In Lawson’s model, the student writes a short paper on a subject before a presentation of the material and then writes a longer paper reevaluating and supporting his or her views. Using content analysis, the authors compared the students’ answers in the first and second essays, evaluating them based on Fowler’s stages of development. The authors presented examples of student writing with their analysis of the students’ faith stages. The results demonstrated development in stages 2 through 5.

The authors made no mention of how to support spiritual development in the course. There was no correlation between grades and level of faith development. Instead, they were interested in the interface between religion and science, teaching material on ways of knowing, creation myths, evolutionary theory, and ethics. They exposed students to Fowler’s ideas but did not relate the faith development theory to student work in the classroom. There appears to have been no effort to modify the course content based on the predominant stage of development, and it is probably a credit to their teaching that they were able to conduct the course with such diversity in student faith development. However, since Fowler’s work is based largely within a Western Christian setting, some attention to differences in faith among class members would have been a useful addition to the study. 

Fowler’s work would seem to lend itself to research of this sort, but this model is the only example found in recent literature. This study demonstrates the best use of the model, which is assessment. While the theory claimed high predictive ability, the change process that the authors chronicled is so slow and idiosyncratic that it would be difficult to design and implement research that had as its goal measurement of movement in a faith development continuum.