Research Guides: FP-130 Research Guide: Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Goal

This assignment will:

Expose you to the variety of print and electronic resources available at USNA.
Develop your skills in locating, critically evaluating, and selecting the most important and appropriate sources for your project.
Highlight the importance of properly citing sources for academic work.
Introduce you to the major citation systems.
Assist you in creating research-based arguments through use of quality, scholarly sources.

Thesis

1. On a separate sheet of paper, write the thesis of your research assignment.

A good thesis is a concise, provocative sentence on which reasonable people can disagree, that is supportable with research so that you persuade others to agree with you. Make sure that yours meets the following criteria:

Does it directly address the assigned topic?
Is it written as a statement with which it is possible to agree or disagree?
Is it tailored to a scope appropriate for the paper length?

Research

2. For each of the media types listed below, find one resource that supports or refutes your thesis. Check the tab on the left for a tip sheet on doing an annotated bibliography.

Book:

Library Catalog
Search the library catalog to identiy books, videos, government documents, and more on your topic.

Newspaper article:

U.S. Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
Formerly National Newspapers.
Provides access to the Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.
New York Times Historical This link opens in a new window
Offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue (1851-2006). The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

Scholary journal article:

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Includes full-text coverage in biology, chemistry, economics, engineering, physics, political science, psychology, religion & theology, as well as other subject areas.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR offers a high-quality, multidisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. It includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary collection of e-journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. These titles cover a variety of subjects with a focus on literature, political science, history and culture.

Annotations

3. For each resource, write an annotation that includes:

the bibliographic entry as it will appear in your works cited page (Check with your instructor to find out which citation style he/she requires or recommends
a short summary of the source
evaluation of the quality of the source in terms of accuracy, authority, and overall usefulness
how this source will support of refute your thesis

NOTE: For additional information and sample bibliographies, see the Tip Sheet for Annotated Bibliography tab on the left.