ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Choose a topic of interest to you that related to the broad themes of this course.  You might choose women in a particular job in Japan (OLs; astronauts; entrepreneurs; farmers; entertainers); a social position (motherhood, divorce, aging, marriage); or media related to women (magazines, TV, film, anime).  Make sure that there is enough written about the topic in English so that you can have an annotated bibliography of at least ten items.  Women prisoners, for example, would be an interesting topic, but has anyone written about this in English?

• Do bibliographic searches on your topic.  Use Internet search engines and e-indexes through the Davis Library homepage like LexisNexis, JSTOR, PRoject Muse, and Infotrac.  Also try keyword and subject searches in the Davis Library catalogue.  If you need help, go to the reference desk in either Davis or House Undergrad Library and you will get expert aid from librarians.

• Compile a list of all the information you find. Use MLA (Modern Language Association) format.  Cornell University has an excellent website that gives all kinds of information related to writing an annotated bibliography.  This site also includes examples of format.  I highly recommend it.

• Read the sources you have found.  Short ones can be read quickly; longer ones can be skimmed and only sections read thoroughly.  After reading each text, prepare a note for your bibliography.  If the source is not too helpful, a sentence of description will suffice.  If the source is very useful, a long paragraph will describe what’s in the source and why it is helpful.  Again, check the website above for ways of thinking of this.  Get a variety of sources: book, academic articles, newspaper reports, websites.

• The result of your reading should come to six pages of annotated bibliography: citations and descriptions of varying lengths.

• Write a 2-page overview describing the literature on your topic.  What ways have reporters and researchers looked at this topic?  What is known in English about the topic?  What gaps in the knowledge surprise you, and how do these gaps indicate what needs to be studied next?  How do websites, if any, related to the topic present a different picture or, conversely, how do they underscore the content of the articles?  

• Put your name & the date on the first page.  Give your bibliography a title. Staple all the pages together. Hand in at the beginning of class on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 and send a copy to Professor Bardsley by email with the subject line: WWJ (your name).