Part One: Compile Your Annotated Bibliography

List five highly credible sources that help you understand the scope of a current and unresolved issue in your field and the audiences who have decision-making authority over it. (NOTE: To arrive at six great sources, you will probably review many more than that). One of those sources must be from a scholarly journal. The remainder can be from the major newspapers, trade publications, notable blogs written by credentialed authors, and high-end periodicals.

Include sources that address the following aspects of research for Essay 2:

• One source for background information about the issue (scholarly sources are usually good for this purpose)

• One source that provides evidence about a potential audience, someone with decision-making authority over the issue you are investigating

• Two sources that offer differing perspectives on the issue

• One source the establishes why this issue is current and unresolved in your field

Part Two: Writing the Annotations

For each of your sources, you must write a rhetorical précis, a four sentence summary or “annotation” that does the following:

Sentence 1 Name of author and title of work [publishing information, date, and page numbers in parentheses]; a rhetorically accurate verb (such as asserts, argues, suggests, contends, believes, reports, indicates, insists); and a “that” clause containing the thesis or main argument of the work.

Sentence 2 A brief but accurate explanation of how the author develops or supports the thesis, usually in the same order as was developed in the essay.

Sentence 3 A statement of the author’s apparent purpose, followed by an “in order to” phrase.

Sentence 4 An explanation of how this source is relevant to your research and why you chose it.

Jane Goodall in “Primate Research is Inhumane” (Animal Rights: Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. Janelle Rohr. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1989: 95-100) argues that most laboratories using primates engage in inhumane practices. She supports her argument through detailed descriptions of lab environments and draws special attention to the neglect of psychological comforts which these primates endure until they sometimes become insane. Her purpose is to speak on behalf of the chimpanzees in order topersuade her readers to see that if we do not fight for improvements in lab care, “we make a mockery of the whole concept of justice.” I chose this source because Goodall is a well-known subject matter expert and animal rights activist whose research shows animals can feel emotions, which provides an alternate perspective to other scholars who claim animals do not.

Part Three: Synthesize Your Sources

After you annotate your five sources, list your academic discipline and your narrowed research question.

Below that, write a two paragraph synthesis essay where you do the following:

• Identify connections and differences you see among the sources you annotated

• Explain how they are responding to ideas you see in other articles.

• Identify the leading candidate for your audience that emerged from your research.

• Cite the sources accurately using the documentation style appropriate for your academic discipline (MLA or APA).

REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS

1. Describe your experience shifting from the “collection” mode of traditional college research to an inquiry, or questioned-based, approach. How did having a question to answer to guide your research affect how you conducted your search and how will this shape your research process in the future?

2. How did synthesizing the sources you included help you refine your research question and/or influence your choice of audience?