Annotated Bibliography

1. Selecting and narrowing a research topic. Please select a topic wisely, as this is the same topic you will use later for your 10-page research paper in November.

Upon selecting your topic, do the following to help you and the reader to be acquainted with the topic:

1. Introduce the topic for about five lines

2. Provide a statement of the problem or issue on the topic (what did you observe about the topic?)

3. State the scope or how much you want to do on the topic

4. State your position on the topic

5. Find one or two research questions which may guide the investigation

The following subject areas have been overused or exhausted in past semesters. Hence, you should avoid selecting from these areas for the research paper, unless you suggest a unique and new view on any of these subjects.

Global Warming
War: Iraq, etc.
Teen pregnancy
Parenting Issues
Tuition related issues
Crime and penitentiary
Drugs and addiction
Sports and steroids
Economy and Finance
Marriage: same sex, polygamy, etc.
Celebrities
Slavery/Slave trade
Child abuse
Euthanasia
Police related issues
Social welfare
Abortion issues
Obesity
Domestic violence

The following areas may be explored for research topic:

Medical related issues
Career related issues, consider a unique topic around your job
Affirmative action
Human trafficking issues
Foreign cultures and rituals
Health and illnesses
Genocide, the Holocaust, etc.
Communities and identities
Insurance
Security
Environmental related issues, except global warming
Animal issues
Unemployment
Cosmetics, including surgery
Endangered species, including languages
Immigration
Race related issues
Religious conflicts: Christian vs. Jews or Muslims
Politics

20. Etc. Etc.

After selecting a topic from the above list of suggested topics posted for this assignment, complete your annotated bibliography. Below are guidelines for completing the assignment:

Discovering the best sources is an important part of the research process. The quality

and authority of your sources influence the quality and authority of your final written

product. To choose the best references, you need to read critically and assess the sources quickly. As your read, you need to summarize the main points of the source to determine whether the source presents sufficient, representative, relevant, and accurate evidence to support your argument in your writing. For this assignment, you will write a Annotated Bibliography (also called an Annotated List of Works Cited, which follows the MLA format for this class) of the sources you plan to use for your essay. A annotated bibliography contains ONLY summaries and descriptive comments on each source in one or a few paragraphs presented below the cited source in MLA style.

The commentary paragraph must include the following aspects:

1. Give a summary of the source and state the main point, position of the author, or perspectives in the source,

2. The relevance of the source to your research topic,

3. Whether the source is new or old and the type of information it provides (charts, graphs, pictures, concrete objects, videos, etc.),

4. How you plan to use the source in your research.

For your essay 3, you will select five sources from the MC Library database (Raptor) and critically review them to show that you master the scholarly literature that exists on the research topic you have chosen to investigate.

Reminders:

1. Provide an issue statement at the top of paper.

2. Provide a short summary paragraph of five lines below the issue statement to give readers a general idea of the topic for which the annotated bibliography is written (be sure to highlight perspectives on the topic).

3. List all sources in alphabetical order and use the MLA style manual.

4. Make sure that your commentary paragraphs are at least 8 – 10 lines long.

A Student Sample of an Annotated Bibliography in MLA Style

Veronica Gutierrez

Dr. Isaiah Ayafor

ENGL 102

CRN:201920

October 9,2018

Annotated Bibliography: Endangered species (Siberian Tiger)

Issue Statement: Over the past years many animals have made the list of endangerment then reached extinction, the Siberian Tiger has become part of the list of the endangered species all over the world. The Siberian Tiger becoming part of the endangered species could lead to possible extinction if nothing is done about it.

Research Question: What are the main reasons of this cause and what can humans do about it to protect the Siberian Tigers?

My Position: My stance is that humans are the main reason to why the Siberian Tigers are disappearing and that humans are not doing enough to protect their species.

Summary of the Problem: On the earth there are many animals that do not reproduce quickly as others and if not taken care of they could reach extinction like many animals that have disappeared. There are many reasons why animals can be endangered such as invasive species or habitat loss and many others. In this case the Siberian tigers are facing endangerment because of reasons mentioned previously.

Palavesin, Clara. “Tigers: On The Brink of Extinction.” Skipping Stones, Jan- Mar 2014,

Print.

This article is about the threats that face tigers and their importance to wildlife. The primary reasons of this cause are premature birth, illness of cubs, poaching of tigers, killings by farmers, and habitat destruction. All of the species of the tigers are endangered and the ones that have been extinct are the South Chinese, Caspian, Javan, and Bali Tigers. The author wants more laws to protect them because she feels that there are not enough laws, which is why they are dying. This source is old because it was written in 2014 but is still relevant because the tigers are still on the list on extinction. I plan to use this source in my research because it talks about the major reasons to why the tigers are endangered.

Thatte, Prachi. Joshi, Aditya. Vaidyanathan, Srinivas. Landguth, Erin.

Ramakrishnan, Uma. “Maintaining tiger connectivity and minimizing extinction into the next century: Insights from landscaping genetics and spatially-explicit simulations.” Biological Conservation, Elsevier Ltd, Feb 2018, Print.

This article is about habitat loss to the tigers and what can be done to help them not lose their home, such as making protected areas for them to live on. In the article it talks about experiments such as different land use to see if the overall extinction rate has decreased. It also mentions the human reasons why the tigers are endangered such as the high traffic roads. The authors are focusing on what can be done to better accommodate the tigers so humans don’t interfere in their habitat. The article is new since it was written this year which makes it relevant because it focuses on their habitat today in the world and what is impacting it. It also provides data and maps of their research throughout the areas where the tigers are roaming. I plan to use this source in my research by looking at the data that has been collected.

Bhutoria, Sundeep. “Tiger, Tiger Running Out?” UN Chronicle, 1 June 2014, Print.

This article is about the concern of the tigers, rhinoceroses and camels being endangered in India. The main reason according to this article is because of the poaching problem in this country. India has been tracking down many poachers but it has been hard to put an end to this activity which is why the Tigers are declining in this county. The position of the author is strongly against poaching, and in the article, it also provides data and facts about what the poachers are doing in the country and what the police are doing. I plan to use this source because poaching is still a problem in these countries which hasn’t come to an end and there needs to be something done about it.