Writing Assignment

The Critical Annotated Bibliography

Writing Assignment will be a critical annotated bibliography of 12 sources. In this assignment you will write a list of at least 12 references in alphabetical order in APA format. In addition, each reference will be followed by a short analytical summary of 150-200 words. At the end of the short summary annotation for each reference article, you will include a sentence or two that critically analyzes the source and that mentions distinctive features about the article and why it may or may not be useful for you in writing your own literature review.

With few exceptions, your reference articles should have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals rather than in the popular media. You may select a topic of your choice from the alternatives below. Ideally the topic that you chose for this assignment will be the same one that you use for the Literature Review-which would give you a headstart on preparing for that assignment.

Otherwise, you will need to begin work on the Literature Review by assembling an entirely new bibliography.

You may consider your major and topics that will be covered in future classes you plan to take at UMUC, and your interests. Contact the instructor if you have a topic of special interest that you would prefer to use rather than the alternatives listed below.

(1) ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE - Until recently, animal intelligence has been egregiously minimized. New research is motivating a reconsideration. See Frans de Waal's new book, "Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?"

(2) POLITICAL LANGUAGE - How has the language of American political communications changed over the past 40 years?

(3) HIGHER EDUCATION - How has the high cost of American colleges influenced student choices of their degrees and areas of academic specialization?

(4) VOTING RIGHTS - What are the merits (if any) of Virginia Governor McAuliffe's initiative to restore voting rights to felons after their release from prison? 2

Whichever topic you consider, keep in mind that it should be a topic on which a number of studies or scholarly articles have been published. You will conduct all or most of your research using UMUC's OneSearch function in finding scholarly articles. (Avoid Google searches and transient websites.)

This assignment will be an analytical/critical/ annotated bibliography. The difference between the descriptive/informative annotated bibliography and the analytical/critical annotated bibliography is explained in the following video:

http://www.umuc.edu/library/tutorials/bibliography/bibliography.shtml

The transcript is at http://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/bibliography_tutorial.cfm#transcript.

Following are some links to sample Annotated Bibliographies. Some of them give examples in APA format. You may want to observe these examples and perhaps model your work after them.

• A variety of samples from The University of North Carolina Writing Center, including these specific examples of APA-style annotations.
• Some instruction from Cornell University. The website also provides more information on the process of writing an annotated bibliography.
• Some samples from Memorial University in Newfoundland.
• Some instruction from East Carolina University.