One thing that stood out to me while working on the annotated bibliography assignment was the importance of picking an interesting topic. I chose the topic of the burial ground for African-Americans, which was absolutely fascinating to me from the beginning! In my research for my sources, I found that it felt less like an assignment and more like a personal passion project. (Although, writing the annotated bibliography did feel like an assignment – albeit a pretty cool one.) I think we might be visiting the burial ground in our field trip tomorrow, which would be so cool to see in person. In my research, I found out that the burial ground had been destroyed and developed into a parking lot, and there were some notes on attempts to reclaim the land, but they didn’t mention if the efforts were successful (or fully realized – my peer-reviewed sources were both published within the last three years).
Month: October 2023 Page 6 of 11
This class with Nick Dease, the film and humanities librarian, was very helpful. He went through a plethora of resources that are available to us which I otherwise would never have known about. He first went through the processes of interlibrary loan, holding for pick up, and the online chat with a librarian. He also explained the UR One Search and showed us the best ways to search the database and find what we need. He described to us the variety of resources available, such as books, magazines, journals, and films. He also touched on the importance of learning the unique language of your topic to better be able to research and find resources about it.
He then went on to describe evaluating the sources we find based on their relevance, reliability, and legitimacy. He emphasized going through each source and tracing back different claims and quotes. After this, he talked about the different formats of citing a source such as APA, MLA, and Chicago, and went through the different benefits and drawbacks of each as well as different use cases. He also talked about the importance of giving credit where it’s due to avoid plagiarism, even if it is accidental. Not only does giving credit avoid plagiarism, but it also contributes to scholarly conversation.
He then finished up with some additional methods to narrow down search engine results such as placing quotes around text or explicitly stating “Not” to avoid certain results.
P.S. Sorry for the late response, I didn’t realize I was the responder for this class until I was looking ahead at the weekly schedule
When first starting the annotated bibliography assignment I was unsure of what I wanted to focus on from RIH. When beginning my search I found it hard to pinpoint a primary source that I could really dive into. My first few choices were hard to locate on line and the library didn’t have copies of some of the books I would need, so I had to do even more digging. But when I finally found what I wanted to work on it was a lot easier to start building my bibliography. After class on Thursday I went through my resources trying to find secondary sources that would match with my primary one. This also took a little long because some of the sources were not available online, or I could not find information about the author(s). Thankfully, I did finally find two academic peer-reviewed sources that aligned with my research question and I was able to pull the whole assignment together. Overall, there were some rough patches while trying to find a topic and primary source and making sure there were enough secondary sources, but once things started to flow it was much easier to pull ideas together.
Overall, I really enjoyed my research process, even though it was short, it was really rewarding going through all the steps of annotated week biography and learning about all the different ways and styles that exist. Something definitely useful in academia. I realize that if the research that someone has done is effective, and if we spend more time researching putting the pieces together, and writing or evaluating the sources and coming to a conclusion, is much easier and faster, and that’s when I realize the importance of researching deeply effectively and with quality. Even though my question was generally from abroad and three sources were limited still, I was able to answer them to a big extent my question. Seems the sources that I used were both informative and insightful and really niche to the topic that I was researching. That is the extent to which segregation of white and black races has led to segregation in the education field up to today.
We went back and looked at the assignment instructions for the annotated bibliography. We talked about the goals on the instructions and what we learned about the research process. Things we mentioned included finding sources in the library and finding them in library databases.
We also talked about the takeaways from Nick Dease’s library session. For example, Brice said that he liked that we could narrow searches to find what we need.
In terms of exploring curiosities, Julia said she didn’t know a specific question, but that she found certain topics interesting like annexation, which later helped her develop a question.
We talked about scholarly conversation. Mitch said that scholars can build a net of knowledge by collaborating with one another. Professor Dolson talked about tenure in universities (allows you stay at a certain university as a professor), and how it takes a lot work to get it. Professor Dolson herself does not have one; she helps run the Bonners Scholars program and does publish things but not as much as other professors. Wesley told us about a program Professor Dolson works with that helps people get driving lessons for transportation to jobs. We talked about volunteering and how it helps make people happy. All these professors are the ones writing these scholarly articles, all while teaching too.
Professor Dolson encourages us to track information during research and is setting us up to learn about Zotero. We should explore curiosities and evaluating, not necessarily looking at the first result on Google. We can have References or Annotated Bibliography as the title of our annotated bibliography. The first paragraph is mostly summary. There are also instructions to write evaluations on this website: https://www.bibliography.com/chicago/chicago-annotated-bibliography-entries/
Next, we looked through the rubric and partnered up and tried to score each others’ annotated bibliographies. We also asked questions afterwards. For formatting, we can look at the example on the above website. As a class, we are agreeing to use the example with red text. Do two paragraphs instead of one, with no line between paragraphs. Put your name on it somewhere, it doesn’t matter where. The content matters more than formatting in the rubric. For the analysis, we can comment on how the source is useful and why it’s interesting to you. Using “I” is fine because it’s informal; it’s a tool for us so we are the audience. But if it was to be published, then it might be more formal.
Professor Dolson talked about the Rhetorical Triangle. It helps with learning how to communicate with rhetoric, like with a rhetorical analysis. Imagine a triangle. One node is the person giving the message, the second is the one receiving the message, the third one is the purpose. Sometimes the audience can be the self, which we overlook.
More questions and answers followed. There is no length requirement, only the two paragraphs for each entry. Double spacing is preferred. We can include link to library source or author name if the source is a physical one. When separating entries, you should have the indent of the author separating each one. We should summarize both the author and source; also talk about what the source is and how might the source be used. Nick Dease’s PowerPoint is available in last class’s notes on the blog.
We don’t have class on Tuesday, but we have a field trip to a burial ground on Thursday. We’re meeting at the transportation hub at THC by 11:45. More information will come via email. The week after, we’re going to do a draft workshop for our midterm portfolio. For the portfolio, we’re just reading over our work so far this semester. We can do any work we haven’t done yet to prep for this. We will also be doing a personal storytelling project, which will help prepare us for our spring project at the detention center. Our analysis essay on Writing Our Way Out will most likely be due around the end of October, which we might have a workshop on again.
The idea of the poll tax and it’s origins really stood out to me as an interesting topic when I was reading Campbell’s book and the initial source I chose, Managing White Supremacy, so I decided to look into that more for my research. The library’s OneSearch filters were really helpful in leading me to a peer-reviewed article, but I had a little more trouble finding a second source. However, the databases that Nick, the librarian, showed us pointed me in the right direction. I was able to find two sources that I found interesting with relatively little difficulty, and I can’t help but be thankful for the great resources available at and through the library that made the process so smooth.
Writing the Annotated Bibliography was actually a lot easier than it was in the past. In the past, I suppose I did not understand the task’s fundamental nature was a lot simpler and different as opposed to what I usually presumed. In terms of actually constructing, the library search engine was helpful in pulling up the exact article I needed, even though I already knew my primary source beforehand. Similar search terms under the general premise of “Vagrant Laws” pulled up results that expanded my potential focus to look at Vagrancy Laws and similar policies in other states.
Since my article did not have an author, it was a little harder to analyze the source. I ended up focusing on the publisher element, alluding to the New York Times and its success. I looked at the genuine governmental order issued and signed by the Assistant Adjutant General with a deeper dive into research. It was a bit difficult because Alfred H. Terry’s reputation had not mention his tenure in Virginia.
The research did help make me more aware of a history lens that was initially unknown. The fact that the Union established districts under military “rule” in the South through the “Military Districts” was also pretty interesting.
We could’ve talked about finding sources and writing an annotated bibliography for the whole semester, but nothing compares to having actual hands on experience (I know this and I’ve only just started the process). Seeing firsthand the amount of knowledge we have access to is much different from being told how many resources are available. I can infer that it would be more difficult to find resources at a larger university (since there would be more people wanting more documents, making it harder to get a specific piece), so I’m glad I can take advantage of the availability offered at UR.
When I started my annotated bibliography, I had trouble finding my source. I chose the book The Color of Their Skin and it was not in the Boatwright Memorial Library even though the website said it would be there. I talked to the librarians and I was able to find a copy at the Richmond Law Library. I read the pages before and after my selected quote, and it was easy for me to come up with a summary of the source. When typing my bibliography I had some issues with formatting and spacing, but I was able to figure it out. I’ve had trouble finding a peer-reviewed source about integration in Virginia schools for my two other sources.
When I began writing my annotated bibliography, I was very conflicted between two different sources. In the text, Campbell references a speech given by Frederick Douglass, and within that speech, Douglass touches on a text written by an Episcopalian Bishop named William Meade. Meade’s views on slavery were shocking and immediately caught my attention and sparked the question I am looking to answer which is how Christian leaders of the early 19th century could justify the system of slavery. I was unsure if it would be better to look at Douglass’ speech with Meade’s included or just the text from Meade. Eventually, I decided to do Douglass’ speech because it was very difficult to find a good source for Meade’s text. Writing the annotated bibliography was a little challenging and I am honestly still not completely certain that I did it correctly so hopefully working on it in class will help.