Incorporating r esearch

Incorporating research

Incorporating researchThe Annotated bibliographyIncorporating researchLearn the conventions of your discipline!Sometimes you NEVER quote, only paraphrase, or vice versaIf you include quotations, how much is acceptable? When is it acceptable?Signal phrases tell the reader where the information came from before it is givenEnd citations

You will need to learn the conventions of your discipline in order to incorporate research into your writing. How do the professionals do it? You can only learn this by reading materials produced by others in your field and asking experienced professionals.

In some disciplines, you NEVER quote. In others, you ALWAYS quote.

You need to learn that if you include quotations, how much is acceptable and when is quoting acceptable?

By reading others writing, you will learn what signal phrases to use to tell the reader where the information came from before it is given.

Professional standards will also guide how you format your citations within the text and how you will cite them in the bibliography. 2Summarizing informationAccuracyCompletenessReadabilityConcisenessNontechnical styleRead the entire original.Reread it focusing on essential material.Restate the essential material in your own way.Check your version against the original.Document the source.

You will almost always have to summarize information. Successful summaries are accurate and complete. That is, they reflect clearly and wholly what was said in the text. They are readable. The audience shouldnt have any trouble understanding connections between the ideas you have presented IN YOUR OWN WRITING. Successful summaries are concise and are usually written in a non-technical style.

In order to write a successful summary, follow these steps:

Read the entire original.

Then re-read it, focusing on the essential material. Because youve read it once, you are familiar with the article, but now you want to know it VERY WELL so that you can retell its information to your audience. Restate the essential material IN YOUR OWN WAY. Do not simply use synonyms. Take yourself away from the text and explain what you read to someone who hasnt read it. Finally, check your version against the original. You DO NOT want to sound like the originals authors. If so, you are likely plagiarizing. Finally, document the source. 3The Annotated bibliography

Incorporating and summarizing information is important for all research-oriented documents. This includes Annotated Bibliographies.4What is a bibliography?Bartusch, C. J., & R. L. Matsueda (1996). Gender reflected appraisals, and labeling: a cross-group test of an interactionist theory of delinquency. Social Forces, 75(1), 145-177.

Ogbu, J. U. (1995, Dec). Cultural problems in minority education: Their interpretations and consequences. The Urban Review, 27, 271-297.

A bibliography is a list of sources with several pieces of identifying information such as author, title, date, and publishing information. Bibliographies are written using a certain format depending on the conventions of your profession. The American Psychological Association, or APA, has guidelines for bibliographies that appear in their publications and are therefore the convention of most of the social sciences. Here is what an APA-style bibliography looks like. The I-triple-E also has guidelines. Heres what a bibliography from an IEEE article looks like.

For our example during this video, lets look at these two sources, written here in APA format.5What is an annotated bibliography?Bartusch, C. J., & R. L. Matsueda (1996). Gender reflected appraisals, and labeling: a cross-group test of an interactionist theory of delinquency. Social Forces, 75(1), 145-177.

This article assesses whether an interactionist model can account for the gender gap in delinquent behavior. Analyzing data from the National Youth Survey, it concludes that parental appraisals significantly affect youths' reflected appraisals which in turn predict delinquency.

Ogbu, J. U. (1995, Dec). Cultural problems in minority education: Their interpretations and consequences. The Urban Review, 27, 271-297.

Ogbu shows how cultural differences enhance or deter the school adjustment and academic performance of minority students and discusses the problem of cultural representation in curriculum. Research was performed by case study. Results show that blacks reference cultural differences as barriers and that many are unsuccessful in crossing cultural boundaries.

So, what is an annotated bibliography anyway? Well, first of all, lets clarify the term. Annotated means supplied with notes or comments. So an AB is a list of sources with notes about each source. ABs can be made for groups and can even be published, but most often they are used as a tool by writers.

For example, when I began the research for my dissertation, the book-length study that a person must complete in order to earn a doctorate, I kept a list of all the sources I consulted and included notations summarizing and evaluating each source. This helped me keep track of all the information I was receiving and served as a reference instead of re-reading the source each time I needed to incorporate or refer to its ideas in my writing.

In scientific and technical fields, the sources you find will most often be published results of studies. For your ABs, you will need to include The question or problem addressed by the article. The article's method of analysis. The article's thesis, conclusions, and/or recommendations.

Using the articles I mentioned earlier, lets see how the annotations should look.

For the first article Gender I have summarized what question the article addresses (can an interactionist model account for the gender gap in delinquent behavior?). I tell how the article responds to this question (by analyzing data from the NYS). And I include the sources conclusions (that parents affect the youths which then affect delinquency).

Take a moment to read the second entry.

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