How to ace the Annotated Bibliography

Hello.

This is just a short video for students

in the introduction to Japanese society and culture.

On the annotated bibliography.

What is an annotated bibliography?

Well,

the annotated bibliography assignment is meant to

make sure that you are starting your research

on your final essay topics.

You'll have to choose the final essay topic and

then you'll have to gather up at least five sources

and tell me a little bit about those sources that you

found and how you're going to use them in your paper.

Perhaps.

Um it's really meant to make sure that you've

gotten started on this research process and it allows us

to give you some useful feedback going forward so

that you can have the most successful paper possible.

I'm going in this video,

I'm going to tell you a little bit about the

dues and don't based on my experience with past assignments,

but we're gonna start with the dues.

So what you need to do is you need to show me that you have done some research.

Um That means I want you to find sources

that are not necessarily on that reading list that I'm supplying.

I want you to go beyond that. Show me that you've done some searches.

You found some sources, um

evaluated those sources and make sure they're good sources

and that they are relevant to your topic.

So that's the first thing if you can show me that you've done a

little work in that I'm going to give you credit for your effort.

If you choose just the the things that are on the reading list.

Um you're not going to do as well.

I want you to show me that you've understood the source. That's the second to do.

That's a big, big thing.

And I don't want an extensive summary of the source

I to show me that you really understood the source.

You should be able to be very concise about your summary.

That means that you really just show me the most

relevant the most important things in that the major findings,

the conclusions and so on.

You might write something about the source of the data,

whether it's from questionnaire or whether it's historical data

or whether it's from field work that might be able

to help me assess that you've really understood what's going

on and that and what the author is saying.

So show me you've understood it. Not with a lot of words, but very concisely.

One thing that can help you with this is to pick out keywords concepts,

findings that are in that particular source.

So if you find a source that they use is a particular japanese word. Um

moriarty for instance and you think, oh moriarty, that's a very key word.

And this guy really, you know, does a good job of defining it.

I know I'm going to use that in my paper eventually, then that's fine.

That can be the way that you use that source.

So that leads me on to the next thing often the way that we use the sources is,

you know,

we they have a particular concept or a particular keyword

or finding that we want to put in the paper.

You may use a key source uh for defining a key term.

It might be too forward your argument,

you might want to um you know use or

testing argument that's been used in another paper.

You might use it as a source of evidence or examples.

They have case studies for good ethnographic examples.

You might say I'm going to use those from this source.

Um Whatever it is really briefly give us give me a sense of

how you're going to use this particular source in your annotated bibliography.

This is probably the point that the most students

miss out on when they are doing their assignments.

So they often have a summary but then they forget to say how they're going to use it.

So even if it's very brief and even if you're not quite sure,

um then at least give a try to to say how you're going to use it.

So we can give you some credit for that.

Uh And the last thing and it is an important

thing is make sure your bibliography is formatted correctly.

There is a brooks harvard referencing guide that is

on the model page and it's available through the

through the library and please take a look at that.

There are always lots of mistakes that that students make on

their biography and it might be a missing comma misplaced.

You know full stop things that are italicized

that shouldn't be things that are capitalized.

That shouldn't be all of those things

really pay attention To those formatting rules.

It will benefit you down the line. So it's good to get this practice in right now.

Um but absolutely make sure you are doing that.

There is nothing that can annoy or frustrate someone

whose marking your paper more than when they're tired.

And they've gone through 20 papers and they see yet another one.

And that has one of these really. It's full of little minor mistakes. Right?

And and that's really annoying.

So you don't want to do that don't annoy the person who's marking your paper.

Just make sure that you formatted everything correctly. Right.

That means also that you want to list

your sources in alphabetical order by last name.

Um Again make sure that that you only use the first initial.

Um That the date is in brackets if it's a single author monograph,

it's just a book and you're just using a chapter from that book.

Um But it's just you know it's just one author is by the same author.

Don't give me page numbers or anything. Right?

Uh If it is a source that you found that's an e. Book.

Say um that you got from the library don't give me the full U. R. L. For the e.

Book or anything. Uh if it's a book that is also published in the print version.

So just give me the basic information. Um not a whole bunch of long U. R. L. S.

And stuff. We don't need that. So um so make sure that that is a formatted correctly.

That should be an easy thing, right? Um

Now onto the Donuts. Okay.

I've already kind of started on this in a way, but here's a few more.

So the first thing is make sure you're using academic sources.

Don't use non academic sources, you know, website content.

That's not, you know, some sort of print journal article or something like that.

Um You might want to use these on

your paper perhaps as supplementary as extra sources when

you end up writing your paper if they are

really good and and appropriate for the paper.

Um, but for this assignment, I want you to really think about using books,

chapters from edited volumes or academic articles,

preferably from peer reviewed journals.

So we're really looking at academic sources for this assignment. Um

The next thing is don't rely on the general textbooks. Right?

So understanding Japanese society by Joy Hendry.

Any of you could use that for any of these papers.

I want you to show me you've done a little bit of effort to go beyond that.

You found something that is more specific to your topic.

Uh and that maybe isn't on the reading list.

Um So if something looks like just a general textbook,

like introduction to japanese culture or something like that.

Um try to avoid that again,

you might use this and you you might have decided and

reference it and things like that in your final paper.

If it has something that you really like,

but for this assignment you need to show me you've done a little bit more effort.

Um a lot of times students uh you know evaluate the source and they say,

oh this is a good source because it's,

it was just published a couple of years ago or this is maybe

not the best source because it was published 40 years ago or something.

Um don't make assumptions based on the date alone.

I would say you can have relevant and important sources that are older.

Um And maybe you're going to use that um to talk about how anthropologists

used to think about a subject versus how they think about it now.

Or there might be some really important um you know,

key concepts in those older works, for example,

ruth Benedict or something um that you are going to take into something

um more contemporary.

So um don't don't worry about the dates so much of course, if it is a more recent topic,

we would like to see that you are consulting more recent sources.

So if you want to put in some statistics about the japanese population size,

you know,

of course we don't want you to Go back to a source

that 50 years old that has to be a more current source,

the most current source there is.

Um but don't just assume that date matters.

Um that's often, you know, you just, it's a distracting kind of detail.

Um it's taking a word count. Don't, don't worry about it.

Also don't use generic descriptions.

So when you are discussing summarizing the text, okay,

make sure that we know that you have read the specific text.

Don't just say um you know,

if the title of the article is something about um child socialization in Japan, just

don't just have a summary that says this

is a book about child socialization in Japan.

You gotta tell me a little bit more about the specifics of it, right?

Um so don't use generic descriptions after you've done your,

your little annotations for each of these references.

Make sure you go over them and check am I being too generic?

Am I being specific enough?

So that's key.

And the last thing that I don't want you to do is don't go over the word count.

Um So unlike your essay, you know, I don't expect your annotations,

your notes on each of these references um to be um you know perfect english.

They can be, you can use uh some some sort of phrases, I would avoid bullet points.

Um but you know, you can,

you can have sort of shorter phrase is uh in there

if that helps you to stay within word count right?

Um So you know, be very precise with your words,

choose your words carefully uh and don't go over.

Um You know try to stay within 100 100 and 50 words, right?

Uh And the reason for this is although you might have a lot to say about this source.

Um This is an exercise and really being concise showing us you know what

this source is all about and exactly how you're going to use it.

And it's also uh you know we have to be able to compare all of

these assignments next to each other in order to give you a fair grade.

Um so it wouldn't be fair um to if you wrote

you know 300 words on each um on each reference.

And you did a really great job.

We can't really compare that to another student who kept within the guidelines.

So don't go over word count. Right? Even if you have brilliant things to say.

Okay finally some advice is to review the library slides and the other stuff on mood.

Also there especially there is um an annotated bibliography from the past year.

Uh There are notes and comments on that throughout the kind of thing

that you're gonna probably see when we give you feedback on your paper

and

uh take a look at that,

take the look at and look at it and think about the

ways in which we are going to be viewing your assignment.

Um The ways that in which we are going to be really picking it apart.

Uh And making sure um that that uh that you've you know met all of these criteria. Um

So uh take a look at that,

look at the general guidelines and finally make sure that you turn it it on time.

That's too on the 25th of february. That's friday one PM. Um So I hope that helps.

And if you have any other questions I have again office hours, mine has office hours.

Um And there's lots of information on um you deal

um You can always use the frequently asked questions document.

Um Go to the module guide and then you'll see a link in there.

You can also use the discussion for him. Um But go ahead.

Uh You know work work together with other students.

Maybe you're doing the same topic again.

You can sort of find as uh you know resources together.

As long as you are doing original work.

You know you're not working you're that all your

biographies aren't identical. As long as you're you've got original work there.

I don't mind. You sort of working together. I think that's fine.

Um

So hopefully this helps.

And uh yeah I will look forward to seeing all of your bibliography is very soon

How to ace the Annotated Bibliography

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