Ultimately, the research paper will focus on some aspect of the play. In other words, the play itself is the primary source and is what your research will help you to discuss in greater detail. Your research articles are the secondary source materials that you will use to help you develop your ethos as a student-critic. You will eventually write an essay that is similar in style to your synthesis essay, where I gave you the open-ended question and both articles, only this time, YOU make the question and YOU find the research articles.
The Annotated Bibliography prompts you to begin your secondary research for the research project. Using MDC library databases and, if you like, you can also use Google Scholar, you will locate and select 3 sources–at least 1 of which will be a scholarly source. (Remember, the final paper will need to cite 4 sources, 2 of which will be scholarly.) The annotated bibliography is designed to demonstrate your ongoing, but perhaps still unfinished, secondary research.
There are two main components to your Annotated Bibliography: the introduction and the entries for each source.
The introduction offers an 1-2-paragraph overview of your ongoing secondary research:
Provide an overview of the information you have gathered about the primary text and its relevant contexts.
Discuss the interpretations other literary critics offer about the primary text(s) and the issues that your secondary sources examine.
Discuss how these other perspectives have influenced your own interpretation.
Explain your plans for further research.
Compose one entry for each of your secondary sources. (A total of at least 3 entries.) Each entry will contain:
an MLA-style bibliographic entry for each source, followed by
a one-paragraph summary of the source.
The entire document must follow MLA formatting guidelines. I have provided a rubric and a model Annotated Bibliography for you to follow as you compose your own document.
Once you complete your Annotated Bibliography, you must then create a Proposal, which is the next assignment in this Research Project series. After you complete and submit the Proposal, you may then begin to write your actual Research Paper, which the final assignment for this course.
If you have not already done so, please be sure to view the video link I have provided in the Research Project folder that explains how to conduct research using the MDC library databases. You should already be familiar with using www.scholar.google.com. Bear in mind that under no circumstances should you have to pay for access to a source. If you find something on scholar.google.com that requires a fee to access, then note the author and the title and try searching for it in the MDC databases. Chances are good that our library will have it and you will then have access for free.
If you have questions, please do not hesitate to email me immediately.
