HUM 469/470: Capstone (Dr. Rodrick)

Doing an annotated bibliography allows you to do some of the legwork of your research project BEFORE you begin writing, which gives you time to contemplate your sources and build a strong thesis that is based in the current research literature. 

For your annotations, we will ask you to SUMMARIZE, ANALYZE, and REFLECT on each source, using the guidelines in the box below.

Each of your annotations should be about a paragraph. You can follow these prompts to formulate your annotation:

• Full Chicago style citation for the item (required).
• Author’s credentials: Who is the author? Where did he or she study, and what degrees does he or she hold? What position does the author hold? How do these credentials allow the author to speak authoritatively about the subject?
• The author’s thesis: What is the author's main argument? 
• Analysis of the article or book: What are the main points of the article or book? What evidence does the author use to support his or her thesis? Are there other arguments being made outside the main thesis?
• Academic Discipline/Theoretical base//place in the scholarly conversation: Which humanities discipline is this source from? Does the author employ a certain theoretical framework or belong to a certain school of thought, especially one that is specific to that discipline? How does this article or book relate to the scholarly conversation on your topic? (For example, does this work break new ground in the field, respond to previously-published material, or recap already-published materials?)
• Reflection: How does this article or book relate to your research project? Use the BEAM method to identify how you think you might use the source (with the understanding that one source can fill multiple purposes!):
  • Background: general information that will help you explain the foundation of your topic
  • Example: evidence that helps you make your argument, like a primary source text or data
  • Argument: a source that makes an argument that you want to engage with or borrow from
  • Method: using the source's way of analyzing a topic, such as postcolonial theory, and applying it to your own topic