4.8 Research Project Outline and Annotated Bibliography

This week you will have an outline for your research project and an annotated bibliography due.

Research Project Outline

The research project outline should provide an overall framework for your research project:

• How is it structured?
• What are important sub-topics related to your research project?
• What points do you intend to make related to your research? (With the understanding that this part is developing as you work on the project.)

Your outline should contain enough information that someone reading it can understand how you are thinking through the project and how your analysis is shaping up. Please review the Hunter College Guidelines for Outlining and follow the conventions described there in our outline. We strongly encourage you to use a sentence outline rather than a topic outline.

While this framework/outline may change a little as you progress through your research, it should serve as the guiding force throughout your research project.

Annotated Bibliography

Your annotated bibliography is a brief synopsis of the literature you have been reading in reference to your research project. At this point, your annotated bibliography should have at least ten entries.

Each entry should be no more than 2 to 5 sentences in addition to the citation. Important aspects of annotated bibliography entries include:

• Literature citation in APA format,
• Brief synopsis of the literature,
• Brief assessment and reflection on the relevance (or lack of relevance) to your subject.
  • Note: Keeping track of articles that do not pertain to your research project is just as important as keeping track of those articles that are pertinent. These articles can provide you with search terms that you may want to avoid, etc.

An annotated bibliography is not the literature’s abstract.

Resources

Cornell University’s Library provides excellent examples of annotated bibliographies to be emulated for your assignment.