Annotated Endnote Bibliography

Purpose:  To generate a substantial electronic annontated bibliography of sources related to a particular topic in your field. 

This is an ongoing project during the entire semester--you will be adding sources during your work for all three papers.  You will receive training in Endnote during the first half of the semester.

The Endnote bibliography will consist of at least 50 items, at least 10 of them annotated.  In addition to the annotations, your notes for each source will note the database used, the major topics (keywords) covered by the source, and whether the source is 1) popular or scholarly, and 2) primary, secondary, or tertiary.  You will eventually submit an electronic AND a paper copy of the bibliography.

Endnote downloads and information can be found at http://library.gmu.edu/endnote

Paper #1:  Explaining the Importance of a Current Development in Your Field

Purpose:  To explain the importance of a current development in your field.  There are two basic requirements of this paper:

1--You need to describe this issue or problem as clearly and concisely as possible for an audience made up of students new to your major who might be interested in exploring or studying this issue or problem.

2--You need to make a compelling, specific, and explicit case explaining the reasons this issue or problem is important to students and professionals in your field, AND why it is important to those outside of your field.  There will be some overlap in those categories, of course, but also some differences.

We need to understand and be responsible for the terminology we use given the audience for whom we write.  This means that you need to decide for yourself how much the average incoming GMU student in your field already knows about the topic, and how much that student doesn't know. This will help you in turn decide what kind of vocabulary, detail, and tone will be appropriate for your writing.  

You'll also need to decide what kind of research is appropriate for the paper.  Many of you will rely heavily on popular sources, though scholarly sources will be helpful or necessary in certain cases.  I will be requiring a bibliography for this paper in a citation style appropriate to your field.  That bibliography should include a decent variety of source material so that your reader will understand that you are not simply repeating one or two sources without considering audience and purpose.

Paper #2: A Portrait of the Written Conversation Surrounding Your Topic

Purpose: To review a variety of available sources in your major field of study as they relate to a specific question, issue or problem you would like to investigate; to demonstrate your familiarity with the way these sources compare and relate to one another in terms of writers, audiences, and purposes.  This paper focuses on the contributions of writers in a variety of sources--it is not an "I" or opinion paper.

Audience: Class members who share your major and have a research interest in this particular topic; your English 302 teacher; possibly instructors in your major

Basic task:  To analyze differences in writers, audiences, and purposes and they relate to the information cycle surrounding the particular topic you've chosen.

You are responsible for showing the reader how these sources differ according to writer, audience, and purpose in the context of the information cycles discussed earlier this semester.  Everything we discuss during the semester, in fact, should help you with this assignment.  I will be looking for you to develop the obvious AND not-so-obvious relationships and I will be looking for you to synthesize your discussion rather than just summarizing one source at a time.  There are multiple possibilities for organizing this paper--we'll discuss that in class.

Your paper should be at least 2400 words in length (roughly 8-9 full pages) and no longer than 3000 words, not counting references page, and should thoroughly discuss all of the sources chosen in step 1 above.  

In this paper, you should be able to demonstrate (and will be graded on) the ability to:

· Concisely and and precisely identify and explain the development in your field (you may use material from paper #1 as you do this)
· Organize your material according to some identifiable and helpful structure
· Synthesize material from multiple sources (and not just summarize sources one by one without synthesis)
· Use specific material and evidence from your sources and research about your sources to support main points and relationships
· Paraphrase and, if appropriate, quote from sources
· Cite and document sources appropriately
· Use standard grammar, syntax, mechanics
· Use appropriate voice/tone/word choice for academic context and the specified audience

Length: At least 1200 words, typed, double-spaced, normal fonts and margins.

Purpose: To provide an accessible, informative, and thorough guide to research in your field related to the particular sub-discipline you've researched for papers #1 and #2.  This guide should be written to and for incoming students in your major, people who haven't yet done this kind of research or taken this kind of class.  (Very important:  This audience consists of students at any university, not just George Mason.)  I encourage you to use all available resources, including your thinking for papers #1 and #2, your class notes, your previous research, the research librarians (including/especially your liaison librarian), and professors or fellow students in your field.

Here's a list of general questions to help you as you put together the paper:

--What are the major journals covering this issue?  Who publishes these journals and what is the place of those organizations/publishers in relation to the field?  What is the mix of paper and electronic journals?

--Who seem to be some of the major contributors/experts talking about this issue?  Have any of these people written important books about the issue?

--What does your reader need to know about the relationship between scholarly publications such as journals and popular sources such as magazines and newspapers?  How and where is this issue presented to a larger, non-specialized audience?  Are there beat writers who specialize in this subject for popular sources?

--Are there popular books about this issue (i.e. non-textbook) aimed at a more general audience?  Are there any "cross-over" authors who do scholarly and popular writing on this issue?

--Are there major bibliographic sources for your field?  (This might include a publication that simply lists bibliographic information without "full text" or even abstracts.)

--What kinds of web sources are available and how authoritative/reliable are they?  What seems to be the general level of discourse on the web about this issue?