Annoted Bibliography

Instructions:

Each student will create an annotated bibliography of five scholarly articles for Dr. Coolidge and five for Dr. Wright pertaining to the works or themes related to the course. You can find scholarly articles in the JSTOR database; just search by title or author. You can also find citations to paper articles and some online texts in the MLA bibliography. If an article is found in a journal or book not available at the GVSU library or online, you can request it through Inter Library Loan. It’s important to remember that it might take up to two weeks or more to receive it; therefore you should begin your research as soon as possible. Please note that a scholarly article is not a website, book review, or a note. If you are not sure, please consult with Dr. Coolidge or Dr. Wright. 

In order to avoid the use of the same articles by students, once you have decided which article(s) you will be including, please post the bibliographical information on Blackboard so that your classmates will know that the article(s) is/are no longer available for them. You may post your entire list at once or one at a time as you decide. Articles for Dr. Coolidge should be posted in her Blackboard site and those for Dr. Wright in hers.

Content and Organization:

Each entry should be headed with the bibliographical information according to the format of MLA or Chicago Style. Each entry should be listed in alphabetical order. Your commentary should consist of one paragraph for each entry that summarizes the ideas and thesis of the author.

The information that follows is based on: “Apéndice 1: El Ensayo Crítico" de Aproximaciones al estudio de la literatura hispánica (New York: Mc-Graw Hill, 1994: 390). This guide consists of a series of questions that you should answer about each critical study. NB: these questions are meant to serve only as a guide to help you look for the correct information, it is not acceptable to just answer the questions, you should organize the information into coherent paragraphs.

1. What is the thesis or central focus of the article?

2. (Question for Dr. Wright only) Does the author use a certain critical approach? Is it formalist or extra textual?  Define or explain how the critic approaches the text? You can find examples of different critical approaches on this page this page.

3. What are the main ideas or supporting arguments of the article?

4.. Does the critic effectively defend his/her position? Why or why not?

5. Are there problems with the article that make its reading/comprehension difficult? (For example, problems of organization, use of a very specialized vocabulary- careful! It is important to distinguish between a critical vocabulary that is necessary for the analysis and an excess of jargon that tends to confuse).

6. General evaluation: ¿Does the article/study help us to understand the subject or not?? Does it enrich our reading of the text or topic? ¿Is it useful for further study of the text or topic?

Listed below are a few helpful sites on creating annotated bibliographies:

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/annotated_bibliographies.html

http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/citation/mla_annotated.html