Term paper - annotated bibliography
- Due Feb 21 by 10pm
- Points 10
- Submitting a file upload
- File Types pdf
The annotated bibliography is the first step in the process of writing a term paper in this course. Short version: specify a research question and write short summaries of 8 scientific articles that address it. (These articles cannot be ones that you used in a previous class with me for a similar assignment.) Warning: this assignment can be quite time-consuming. I strongly suggest that you begin at least a month before it is due.
There are three steps in this process.
Step 1: Identify a research question
A term paper in this class can be on any political science topic connected to East Asia (try me!) as long as it asks a question that is empirical, explanatory, and generalizable.
- An empirical (as opposed to normative) question is one that is about how the world works as a practical matter. It is not a question about how you wish the world would work or what kinds of things you wish other people would do, and it does rest on an explanation of why one set of values are better than another. Do not write a paper asking whether genocide is bad. Instead, write a paper asking what causes genocide.
- An explanatory (as opposed to descriptive) question is one that asks why things happen, rather than whether things happen. Do not write a paper that asks whether genocide is actually happening. Instead, write a paper that asks why it is happening.
- A generalizable (as opposed to specific) question is one that could in principle help us understand a large set of lots of related events, rather than just one. Do not write a paper that asks why one event happened the way that it did. Write a paper that asks a question that could be answered through broader comparisons.
We will go through a number of examples of articles in class.
I advise you to meet with me individually to identify a research question by the end of January at the latest.
Step 2: Collect scientific articles on your research question
You will need 8 total articles that relate to your research question. They must be scientific articles. Do not start writing your annotated bibliography until you have confirmed with me that your articles count.
Each article should be broadly on the topic of your term paper. Choose articles based on the cause-and-effect part of your research question, not based on your empirical domain. For example: if you are really interested in why some East Asian countries have stronger environmental movements than others, find articles that compare countries generally, even if they are not about East Asia specifically.
Here is how to do the assignment:
Use Google ScholarLinks to an external site. to search. Find an article published in a scientific journal that tests a hypothesis with evidence. If you aren't absolutely certain your article counts, check with me. If you use an article that is not a scientific article I will make you redo the assignment. Google Scholar is a search engine that indexes scientific papers and that can make this process easy, once you know the tricks. Here is my tutorial about how to use it.Links to an external site.
Note that, like any search engine, this looks for articles based on what you write in the search box, not based on what you intend.
Google Scholar will help you figure out which articles you want to read. Often, however, it will not give you the full text of those articles.
So, how do you get the full text of the article so you can actually read it? Log in to Marymount's library system and go through their search engine. Or, nine times out of ten, you can get to the full article just by pasting the title of the article in the search box of this pageLinks to an external site.. If you cannot get to it that way you can ask me (or one of the librarians) for help.
If you have made a solid effort to find some articles but have not found any (or have not found enough) after three or four hours of searching, tell me. As a fallback option, I will give you a set of articles on your topic. I strongly suggest that you aim to have these articles in hand by Februrary 1.
Step 3: Write your summaries
Your annotated bibliography will have a statement of your research question and then 8 paragraphs. Each paragraph will describe one of the articles you read, on its own terms. Each paragraph will begin with a complete citation to the article.
In each paragraph, you will describe an article by explaining, in your own words:
- the research question
- the hypothesis
- the key independent variables
- the dependent variable
- the units of observation
- the findings