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Research Question, Annotated Bibliography, and Outline

INTR 100
Professors Paul Watkins and Joy Gugeler
Value: 15% (due Monday Nov 21 in VIULearn dropbox)

Approach and Goals

The assignment asks to frame a ‘how” research question, identify 5 academic sources (books or
articles written by named academics and published by reputable university presses – no Wikipedia)
and do an annotated bibliography that tells us in 3 sentences what the source discusses that is
relevant to your question, including MLA reference. Then do an outline in point form that is a draft
of your essay with subheadings. We will offer feedback to be sure you are on the right track and
indicate if the topic needs defining, narrowing, expanding, or refining in some way.

The primary goal of this assignment is to be able to use the library catalogue and databases to find
appropriate scholarly sources for your research essay. Secondary goals include learning how to
articulate your own interests and passions in the form of research questions about your topic, to
locate relevant sources, and to summarize these sources in a way that relates them to your questions.

Remember, you are developing a tentative approach to your Research Essay assignment. We suggest
that you begin by developing key terms about your topic. See what sources you can find and then
begin to narrow your search by adding other key terms that emphasize your specific interest. For
example, if your topic is Pokémon trading cards, you might try key terms like Pokémon, card, Japan,
children, pop culture, collectible. If there are too many sources, you may want to add key terms to
narrow the selection. Or you may want to explore different approaches to your pop object.

Once you have located several scholarly articles, begin to shape your question. This process can help
you select related sources, and it will also help you develop a question that is of scholarly interest.

Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography gives you an opportunity to summarize, evaluate, and record publication
information for your sources before drafting your research paper. You summarize each source to
understand its main ideas; you evaluate each source for accuracy, quality, and relevance. Finally, you
reflect, asking yourself how the source will contribute to your research project. Your annotation
should be around three sentences long and in proper MLA format.

1. Create a Works Cited entry in MLA format.

2. Briefly summarize each source and explain how it develops or helps answer your research
question (in around 3 sentences). Ensure that the wording of the summary is independent of the
abstract for the article. Remember, you need 5 sources.
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Here is a sample annotation in MLA style.

Rayns, Tony. In the Mood for Love. British Film Institute, 2015.

Tony Rayns provides a detailed analysis of the film In the Mood for Love and draws on his
experiences with East Asian cinema, as well as his relationship with the director, Wong Kar-wai. He
details the film’s complicated genesis and provides analytical commentary about Kar-wai’s
idiosyncratic approach to filmmaking. Overall, this book contains useful insight into the film and
provides relevant details about the cinematographic approach, which fits with my paper’s
examination of cinematography and POV in Moonlight and In the Mood for Love.

Outline and Research Question

1. Provide the title of your essay. Introduce your research question and working thesis that you
will argue in your Research Essay: an arguable claim that attempts to answer your research
question.
2. Provide an outline of the projected body paragraphs of your essay. Clearly label each paragraph
(e.g. Paragraph 2) and provide the topic sentence for the paragraph (see the useful guides on
VIULearn for essay help). An essay of this length will probably have around 5-8 paragraphs. Use
bullets to identify sub-points, key quotations, and examples for each paragraph.
3. Provide a complete Works Cited that includes your scholarly sources, your primary sources
(e.g., films or books or games), and other sources that you are drawing on.
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Essay
Value: 25% (due Wednesday Dec 7 in VIULearn dropbox)

Consider how we make sense of pop cultural ‘texts’ (e.g. episode of a show, a photo, a song, a book,
a movie, a video game, an experience). In this assignment, you will provide a critical analysis of the
cultural and ideological assumptions behind a pop cultural text and make an argument that will
answer your research question.

The text you choose should be fairly current – ideally in the last year or two and should not be so
long that you can’t do it justice in a 2000-word essay. That said, it shouldn’t be so short and obscure
you can’t find any sources that address at least the topic if not the specific text.

Your essay should contain the following:

• Intro - Begin with a catchy intro that briefly introduces the topic and provides a rationale for
the analysis of the text.
• Overview: Move into a paragraph or two that summarizes the text (brief overview, then key
details of plot or image content, especially those pertinent to your analysis).
• Analysis: Most of the paper should be devoted to a clearly organized, thoughtful analysis of
the text. Depth of analysis is paramount; don’t just highlight what would be apparent to
most viewers, try to give the reader the “aha” experience by looking more deeply into the
text and do not make claims without providing examples from the text to illustrate your
point.
• Conclusion – Return to the original question and retrace your steps in a final paragraph that
restates your key evidence to arrive at this conclusion. You might also indicate other areas
for further research.

File and Submission Guidelines:

This essay is 2000 words (+/-5%). Your work must be submitted in MS Word (.doc/.docx) or in
.pdf format and be 1.5 or 2.0 spaced, 12-pt Garamond with one-inch margins. Pages should be
numbered, and you do not need a title page. Your bibliography and in-text citations should be MLA
style.