Annotated Bibliography

Step One: Read Read the chapters that have been assigned. As you read, you should highlight, underline and make notes in the margins. The intent is to grasp understanding, as you will be summarizing each article. The content might be slightly technical in places. Don’t worry or halt in your reading. My expectation is that you show as much understanding as you can. In places, you will simply “get the gist” of what you are reading. You will submit your highlighted, worked-over chapters with your final project. My suggestion is to read one chapter, highlight and move on to Step Two (with that chapter): summarizing before you read the next chapter.

Length / Depth In the case of shorter chapters (5 or fewer pages), you should aim for summaries that are 1/3-1/4 of the length of the original. In the case of long chapters, you should aim for a summary that is no more than 3-3.5 pages long, when it’s in a 12 font, double spaced and typed. Keep the subheadings in your summary to help you move along and for the benefit of your reader. Having a sense of the depth of your summary should help you in your reading, deciding what to focus on, how much detail to record.

Step Two: Summarizing What are the main arguments? What is the point of this chapter? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this chapter is about, what would you say? Choose only the key ideas, and the most interesting examples.

8 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing and Summarizing Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning. Highlight and look up tricky vocabulary, as you go. Cross out parts you will not use. (keep your length requirements in mind as you choose what to ignore). Use a system of stars, arrows, symbols to indicate what you feel is really important. Refer to the original, when it’s all marked up, and write your summary. For each section of your summary, keep headings and key words to keep your reader (and yourself) on track – what are you focusing on, at this point? Check your version with the original to make sure that it accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phrase you have borrowed exactly from the source. (put page numbers in brackets). Record the source (including the page numbers) on your rought draft so that you can keep your chapters straight.

Some Examples to Compare The original passage: Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47. An acceptable summary: Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper. You do not have to use internal citations in the summaries, since I realize you are summarizing from the original. If you incorporate a direct quote, then you must provide an internal citation with the page number.

Repeat: Read and summarize each of the chapters. My hope for you is that you finish the reading and the summaries by Monday morning Dec 19) If you are not in a good place by end of Friday’s class, I recommend you work on it over the weekend, so that you can keep the pace. Otherwise, you will have lots to do at home next week. You will have computer access Monday, Tues and Wed next week, so you work on the Reflect (Step 3) and Connect (Step 4) and the format.

Step Three: Assess Answer the following questions (in multi-paragraph form). You do not have to do so for each chapter. Tackle these questions, overall, with all chapters in mind. You might choose, first, to do so in “answer-format”(which I will not see) then write two or three paragraphs, with all the answers melded together. What does the author want to accomplish? Try to determine if the content is fact, opinion, or propaganda. What does he base his assessment / opinion on? (does he or she use research, studies, history, other sources, practical life experience or experience as a researcher or doctor?) Is the language objective or emotional (objective = based on facts, not influenced by emotion) or both? Explain your opinion with examples. How timely is the source? Was it written recently enough to be relevant, in your opinion? Some information becomes dated when new research is available, but other older sources of information can be quite sound 50 or 100 years later. Does the author reference older research? Does he allude to newer research? Give examples, if this is the case. What are the author’s credentials? You will need to do a little research on the author (one good source will do). Cite your source in an internal citation and also on the reference page. Use APA for your citation. This section should be approximately 1-1.5 pages long, when double spaced.

Step Four: Reflection Were these chapters interesting? Have they enhanced your understanding of the subject? What did you know about the subject, previous to reading these chapters? Did these chapters contradict your knowledge or enhance your knowledge? Explain your answer. In what ways does the information connect to our course? In order to answer this question, you will need to use your textbook, find a chapter or two that seem related: skim through the chapter(s), and make specific connections (how the material in the text relates to the material you have read for this assignment). Does the focus of the textbook chapter, seem to contradict the focus of the readings and, if so, in what ways? Does the focus of the textbook support the key things about the readings, and if so, in what ways? Is there a specific anecdote or example in your reading that touched, frightened, intrigued or surprised you most? Explain your opinion. This section (reflection) should be 1.5 pages – 2 pages when double-spaced.

Format We are using APA for this paper, because Psychology is a social science. Therefore, we will review Owl Purdue’s lab on APA. Specifically, if you check out the sample paper, your format will become clear: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/18/ Your paper must have the following sections: Title page Abstract (about half page, double spaced). Be sure to list key terms in this section, as per the example. Body: here, we follow specific guidelines for this paper (not the Owl Purdue example): use headings for each section. I. Summaries (space them out, one after the other, starting with the title of the chapter, in quotation marks). Introduction or Preface (if there is one) with summary Chapter One Title (with summary) Chapter Two Title (with summary) Chapter Three Title (with summary) II. Assess III. Reflect Reference page – include a) EACH chapter of the book, separately; b) the “Thinking About Psychology” textbook c) the source you used when researching the author. Don’t forget the running head (on each page) and to use APA-inspired page numbers. Also, use citation machine (and APA) for your in-text citations when you use direct quotations or definitions, and format your reference page according to APA guidelines.

Deadline & Evaluation You will have seven days in class to work on this, but you will also need to work at it on your own time. Manage your time wisely and don’t be afraid to request extra help. The last day allocated to work on it is May 5. It is due on Thursday May 12th. We will have computers for two days. Here you will check out the APA format and begin to type your paper. Value: 15% of overall mark Summaries 10 marks Assessment 10 marks Reflection 10 marks Abstract 5 marks APA formatting 10 marks Grammar / Writing 5 marks 50 marks