TERM PAPER INSTRUCTIONS:
THESIS: The thesis of my paper is "breast cancer deaths are rising among African American women due to fewer screenings, poorer health at the time of diagnosis, and more advanced disease by the time the cancer is found."
Annotated Bibliography:
The goal of the annotated bibliography is to help you gather and organize the supporting evidence that you'll use to argue your thesis statement/hypothesis/research question. The body of your final paper must have at least three separate main points that each support the overall argument of the paper. Each main point must have at least one quality primary source of evidence, and may also include examples such as quotes, popular media, etc.
In this assignment, you need to turn in a list of your three sources of evidence from the scientific literature. List the authors, title, date, and where it was published (what journal, website, or book you found it in). If you found the information online, list the URL. Below each source, describe why the evidence supports your thesis/hypotheses or answers your research question.
Sources:
For this assignment, I am giving you strict rules about what you may/may not cite to encourage you to think critically about the information you find, especially on the internet.
Sources: Each of your three points of supporting evidence must have at least one quality information source. You MAY use anything you found in a professionally published book, newspaper, a peer-reviewed academic journal, or on a government-operated website (e.g., cdc.gov, publichealth.lacounty.gov, healthypeople.gov). You are only allowed to use websites ending in ".gov" unless you get specific approval from me. If you find an online source that you want to use that is not a government-operated website, ask yourself: who wrote this? What are their qualifications? Is the information biased or trying to convince me of one side of a debate? Is the information cited? What is the evidence backing this information up? Is it someone's opinion? Does the author have an agenda? After you answer these questions, if you still think your source is high-quality, you may email me for approval to use it.
Examples: You may use examples from your personal life, quotes from your friends and family, song lyrics, popular media, material presented in class, etc. only to illustrate a point that you make made using a reference to a scientific source. That is, you can use them as examples, not as the primary evidence. Your friends/family are not published books, peer-reviewed articles, or government-operated websites.
Example for annotated bibliography:
Thesis statement: Improving access to preventive care would reduce the rate of diabetes-related amputations among African Americans.
Annotated bibliography (first entry):
"Self-care among chronically ill African Americans: culture, health disparities, and health insurance status." By Gay Becker, Rahima Jan Gates, and Edwina Newsom. In AJPH, 2004.
URL: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.94.12.2066
This article presents a qualitative study of 167 African Americans with chronic illness. The authors find that self-care practices have a cultural basis for African Americans. Important parts of self-care in this group included spirituality/spiritual philosophies; integration of mind, body and spirit; social support; and non-medical treatments (home remedies). They also find that those participants with health insurance have more extensive programs of self-care.
The article supports the thesis statement because it shows how African Americans with chronic disease have more extensive self-care practices when they have health insurance. Self-care is important to manage diabetes and prevent amputation. Therefore having health insurance should help patience avoid amputations related to diabetes.