RHE 398T Help Materials

Students may have experience with annotated bibliographies, but it's worth explaining the purpose they serve in the research process.

Annotated bibliographies are an opportunity in the research process to:

• explore controversies within a topic so that you may narrow your focus
• consult a variety of perspectives within a controversy and identify stakeholders
• begin to structure a paper into arguments, counter arguments and to map evidence to claims
• recognize gaps in your research - here's what I know, but what do I still need to know?
• make note of quotations or ideas to be paraphrased for further in the writing process. This avoids the familiar, 'wait, where did I see that?' moment that leads to wasted time and accidental plagiarism.

You want to avoid:

• Not defining the scope for students. How far along are they in narrowing their controversy? Emphasize the scope you want them to work within through examples of manageable research topics. This will help students to refine their searches and not get overwhelmed with avenues to explore.
• Students searching the literature superficially to satiate the source requirements (pick the top result in their search)
• Students finding sources for this project, but never searching for sources again. Students tend to conceptualize research in a linear manner when it is iterative. Coach them to allow their arguments to evolve as they learn more and emphasize that delving back into the literature to explore claims is essential.