GOVT 2305:
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
.
Annotated bibliographies
turned i
n after this time will be
penalized 5 points for
each calendar day
it is late.
How to S
ubmit Your Annotated Bibliography
.
Write up the
annotated bibliography
and
save it
as a
.doc
or a
.rtf
file.
Submit
the file using the
Submit
Annotated Bib
liography
Here
link on
the course homepage.
Instructions
.
This exercise requires you to read
thr
ee
articles
about
a specific public policy
issue
and
turn in an annotated bibliography of these articles. A bibliography is a list of articles on a
given topic. An annotated bibliography is where you provide critical or explanatory comments for
each list
ed article.
The point is to write an annotation of an article that gives someone who has
not read the article a
n accurate and complete account of the article.
Follow these steps.
Selection of Specific Public Policy Issue
. You can select a specific publ
ic policy issue
either
mentioned in the policy chapters from the textbook (chapters 4, 13,
14, 15)
or that you have some
interest in
. The main concern is to have a well
–
defined issue, not too general and not too specific.
You want to have sufficient focu
s in order to identify relevant articles.
You must get your public policy issue approved by the instructor. Once you have an idea of what
issue you want to research, read, and write about, use Quickmail and send a message to the
instructor describing th
e public policy issue you have selected. He will say whether the issue as
defined is acceptable or not.
Annotated bibliographies based on unapproved issues will be severely penalized.
Selection of Articles
. Your annotated bibliography must include
thre
e
articles attempting to
explain and understand your
specific public policy issue
. Don’t just select the first articles that
you find. Read a number of articles and select those, which are interesting, informative, and
important for understanding your
issu
e
. The articles should offer a diversity of perspectives on
the topic.
These
three
articles must satisfy the following conditions:
a.
The
three
articles must total at least
fifteen
full pages. That is roughly
7,5
00 words. The
page and word counts are base
d on a page format of one inch margins, single spacing,
and twel
ve point font. So, for example, you
could
have
three
articles of the following
lengths:
7
pages,
5
pages,
3 pages
.
Any combination of three articles that add up to
fifteen full pages is the
goal. However, you should avoid one page articles. These are
likely not to have enough content for analysis.
Page 2
b.
The
three
articles must come from
three
different magazine
s
or journal
s
.
That is, article
1 comes from magazine X, article 2 from maga
zine Y, and article 3 from magazine Z.
Generally, no newspaper articles. In depth newspaper articles (as opposed to daily
reporting) will be decided on a case by case basis and must be approved by the
instructor.
c.
Only one of the
three
articles can come
from the following magazines:
Time, Newsweek,
U. S. News and World Report.
d.
At least one of your
three
articles must come from a journal of opinion (e.g.
, Nation,
National Review,
New Republic
,
Weekly Standard, Mother Jones, Progressive, American
Spectator
, Dissent, Washington Monthly, Policy Review, Public Interest, American
Prospect, Reason, Z
, etc.). If you are unsure if a journal is a journal of opinion, ask the
instructor.
e.
O
nly one of your
three
articles can be an internet article. An internet article
is an article
which (1) you find on the internet and (2) is not an electronic copy of an article
appearing in a print based magazine or journal. An internet article is unique to the
internet
—
it appears on the internet and nowhere else. If you use an inte
rnet article,
make sure you get it approved by the instructor.
f.
Select articles which are substantive, interesting, informative, and important for
understanding your topic. Look for articles that offer a diversity of perspectives on the
topic.
Recent arti
cles are preferable to older articles.
Remember,
avoid very short articles. They do not allow for much analysis.
g.
You must get your articles approved by the instructor.
Do not wait to the last minute to
get this approval. Start looking for articles on
your specific public policy issue
immediately and send them to the instructor for approval. (Copy and paste the url of
the article into a Quickmail message to the instructor.)
Annotated bibliographies that include unapproved articles will be severely p
enalized.
Page 3
Annotation of Articles
. For each article:
1.
Devote at least one page to each article.
You should be a
ble to do each annotation in
two, but
no more than
three
pages.
2.
Bibliographic Information
. At the top of the page, provide th
e following bibliographic
information:
Name of author(s), “Title of article,”
Name of magazine or journal
,
Volume number
(date of publication): page numbers of article [Total number of full pages at 500
words/page]
Url to the articl
e
Example:
Mark Lilla
, “The Tea Party Jacobins,”
New York Review of Books
57:9 (May 27, 2010): 53
–
56 [9 full pages at 500 words/page]
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/may/27/tea
–
party
–
jacobins/
3.
Point of View
. What is the point of view of the article concerning
the topic? This can be
answered in several ways. Who is the author(s) and why is he or she writing the article?
What kind of article is it: news reporting, analysis, commentary. What is the ideological
slant of the article? Left, liberal, conservative, rig
ht? What is the stance of the article
toward the topic: advocacy or neutrality? Critical, supportive, or objective? You don’t
have to answer every one of these questions, but you must give an accurate statement
of the perspective from which the author is v
iewing the topic.
