Research Time: Annotated Bibliography & Literature Review

Overview / Assignment Three is a two-part assignment that is designed to support your most exciting and ambitious writing project of the semester: the Seminar Paper (A5). With A3 you’ll learn how to find, evaluate, incorporate, and cite scholarly sources as part of a well-researched essay.
The skills you practice in this assignment will come in handy throughout your academic career—particularly when you are conducting research for upper-division classes in your major or even in graduate school. What’s more, the ability to survey a field, determine current debates, and find a place for yourself within those debates is a skill that will serve you well no matter your future profession.
Task / This assignment consists of two distinct but related parts: the Annotated Bibliography and the Literature Review. Together, these pieces will give you a sense of the larger conversation your Seminar Paper is entering into. By articulating your specific agreements and disagreements with the sources you’ve found, you will use the Annotated Bibliography and Literature Review to ensure that your argument is grounded in a scholarly discussion rather than appearing out of thin air.
First, you will create an Annotated Bibliography of 7-10 scholarly sources that you have found during your research. Of course, you will have encountered and read more than 10 sources in the course of your research, but the sources that make it into your Annotated Bibliography are those that you believe have the most potential for your project. For each source, you should provide a bibliographic entry, a brief summary of the text’s argument, and an assessment of how you might incorporate this source into your Seminar Paper. Each entry should be between 100 and 150 words. Not all of these sources may make the final cut and appear in your Seminar Paper. As such, it’s important to remember that this is a separate and different document from the works cited page that must accompany the final draft of your Seminar Paper. Your final Annotated Bibliography should be around 2-4 pages.
The second part of A3 is a brief Literature Review. Professionals use Literature Reviews in a wide variety of disciplines to provide an overview of current research and ongoing debates on a subject—the knowledge of which is essential to any writer or researcher (such as yourself) who aims to add his/her voice to the conversation. While the Annotated Bibliography provides summaries and assessments of secondary sources related to your topic, the Literature Review requires you to synthesize your research efforts and articulate the contribution you expect your Seminar Paper to make to the ongoing conversation about your topic. Your Literature review should be a short essay of 2-3 pages.
Schedule
Week VIII
Monday
Tuesday
Thursday / March 2: QUAC on Fun Home due to Ms. Zimolzak by 8 p.m.
March 3: Fun Home class discussion
Memory Control, Art Control
Homework: Bring a list of proposal draft ideas
March 4: Writing a Conference Proposal; visual argumentation
Homework: QUAC on proposal concerns; Bechdel, Walter Benjamin,
and short graphic novel(s)
Week IX
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday / March 9: Proposal Tutorials
QUAC due to Ms. Zimolzak by 8 p.m.
March 10: Graphic Novels; Benjamin
Homework: Proposal Revision; laptops & tablets *allowed* Thursday!
March 11: Proposal Tutorials
March 12: Library Research Session
Homework: Proposals; read Tell the Wolves I’m Home and
QUAC over break
March 13: Proposals Due to T.O. office by 5 p.m.
Spring Break!
Week X
Monday
Tuesday
Thursday / March 23: QUAC due to Ms. Zimolzak by 8 p.m.
March 24: Tell the Wolves I’m Home class discussion
Homework: A3: Annotated Bibliography and Lit Review
March 26: Writing a Conference Abstract
Homework: A3 (AnnBib & Lit Review) due by 11:59 p.m. March 26