Getting Started with Your Annotated Bibliography

Getting started with your Annotated Bibliography

#Decide on a topic

#Formulate a problem or question/statement

#Gather data

Formulate your question/statement:

I am studying ______because I

want to find out who/how/why/what

______in

order to understand how/why/what

______.

I am studying cochlear implants in children

because I want to find out how language

acquisition is affected in order to understand what

improvements may be expected in children

implanted at a young age.

Why document?

To avoid plagiarism and give credit to the

author(s)

To allow others to access your sources

To validate your own work

Documentation in scholarly research appears as

In-text citations

References

Chin, S. B. (2003). Children's consonant

inventories after extended cochlear implant use.

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing, 46,

849-862.

The Scholarly Journal Article

Title

Should be brief, informative, and descriptive of the

subject matter.

Should contain keywords/variables.

Abstract

Short summary of the entire article: purpose,

method, results, and conclusions.

For non-emperical articles/books, the abstract

should contain the major ideas.

Abstract should be 100-200 words.

HEADINGS

In the social sciences, functional headings

(Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion) are

used.

In the physcial sciences a mix of functional and

topical headings is used.

In the humanities, topical headings are used to

divide the information into major sections.

Introduction

Establishes the subject of the article

Identifies the problem or question

Reviews previous research on the topic

States the purpose of the present study

The introduction answers the question:

"Why are we conducting this study?"

Method

The method section answers the question:

"How did we conduct the study?"

In the social sciences, the method is usually

comprised of 2 subsections:

Participants and Procedure

Describes IN DETAIL how the project or study

was carried out

**The test of a well-written methodology: the

reader could replicate the study based on the

descriptions provided in the method section.

Results

The results section answers the question:

"What did we find?"

Describes what was found or observed (data)

Uses graphics (tables and figures) in addition to text

to fully explain the data

Does not interpret the data; simply reports it

Two common PITFALLS when writing the results

section:

#1 Writers rely too heavily on graphics; text is

inadequate

#2 Writers interpret the results

Guidelines for using graphics:

All graphics should serve a purpose

All graphics should be referenced by number and

discussed in the text

Tables generally present numerical data

Figures include anything that is not a table:

(drawings, graphs, charts, photos)

Any graphic taken out of context should make

sense on its own

Discussion/Conclusion

This section answers the question:

"Why is this study important, what do the findings

mean, how can they be used?"

Interprets the results (data)

Points out the significance of the results

(applications, for example)

Notes the limitations of the study

Compares the "present study" to other studies

Points to future needed research on the topic