DEVELOPING A TOPIC AND GATHERING RESOURCES
Many of us were taught that research is a process of "getting it right" or "insuring the correct interpretation." Often, the correct interpretation was the one that your instructor offered in class. Researching a topic simply became a process of finding information that supported your instructor's point of view.
A better understanding of research recognizes it as an inventive process in which ideas continuously and unceasingly build upon one another. Through research, scholars pick up and build upon the scholarship of others. Not all who participate in this process contribute equally, however. Some make stronger arguments because of the strength of their claims, reasons, or evidence. Imagine a conversation among friends in which you make unfounded statements with outrageous claims and poor evidence. Most likely, your friends will look at you in disbelief. Making unfounded statements is very different than providing a new and well-supported way of viewing an idea. Since you do want to be heard by others, your conversation should be reasonable and insightful.
EVALUATING SOURCES
Not all interpretations of a text are created equally. Some arguments make more reasonable claims, and others have better evidence for their claims. Therefore, part of your task in conducting research is to evaluate your potential sources so that your research essay uses only the sources you judge to be the strongest. You might also ask yourself the following questions:
· Do I agree or disagree with the
writer's claim?
· Do I think the writer's reasons
are sufficient?
· Do I think the evidence is sufficient?
THE PROCESS OF ANNOTATING
An annotated bibliography is a bibliography of sources on a particular subject with an introduction and short summaries of each source. It is used by researchers to gather information on their topics.
A sample annotation might look like this
one:
D'Entremont, John. "Review of Disney's Pocahontas." Literature for Composition: Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 5th ed. Eds. Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William Burto, William Cain, and Marcia Stubbs. New York: Longman, 2000. 1161-65.D'Entremont argues that Disney forsakes history and folklore for corporate profit in Pocahontas: "This [Pocahontas] was hatched in a corporate office by a handful of people with no demonstrable regard for either history or myth. The only pertinent 'research,' evidently was market research. This Pocahontas story emerged to serve, not the cultural needs of society, but the financial imperatives of a corporation" (1165). (Claim) He reasons that the lure of money was enough to rewrite the history and myth of Pocahontas as a story that places the fate of Pocahontas--and by extension, that of Native Americans--in the benevolence of the white settlers, in particular John Smith, who becomes the focus of the film (Reasons) As evidence, D'Entremont cites how the historical and mythical identities of the characters are severely distorted. Of Pocahontas, he writes, "Far from the lithe supermodel of the film, she was a prepubescent girl of about twelve, who, like all Powhatan girls, went about naked in summer, her head shaved nearly bald" (1163). While this distortion might seem slight, the role of Pocahontas in forging a difficult union between whites and Native Americans is reduced to the point of historical nonsignificance in the Disney film. John Smith, not Pocahontas, is hero here. (Evidence)
The summaries of each source and the
introduction are especially helpful in writing your annotation. The introduction
tracks the different threads of conversation that emerge while the summary
gives an overview of the article.
The key to providing the reader with a useful annotation is to isolate the resource’s claim, reasons, and evidence. By isolating these parts of the argument in a four- to five-sentence summary, you will aid future researchers.
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