L SC-311-02: Information Literacy

Final project: Research Essay and Annotated Bibliography
Assigned: Wednesday, August 19, 1998
Topic Choice due: Wednesday, September 2, 1998
Final Project due: Monday, November 23, 1998
Points: 250

Example topics:

• The Automobile, The Environment & The Law
• The Evolution of Theatrical Lighting Control
• Human Cloning
• Hurricanes: Tracking and Preparation
• Chicano Cinema: Past, Present & Future

Due by Wednesday, September 2, 1998
Post an e-mail message to the lsc311-02 class listserv, stating your final project topic. Posting the message to the class list is important because as a class we will all brainstorm on both ways to focus the topic and possible information sources to check. You may adjust your topic after I approve it; however a complete, 180 degree change, is not an option. I will schedule short, topic development sessions outside of class to help you shape your topic and give you direction. These will be held in my office and times will be set up for mutual convenience.

Overview

It is important that you include a variety of sources. Why? Because no topic is completely dominated by one form, method or type of information source. Another reason is that your grade will suffer if only one source type is given.

For example, an annotated bibliography on Brewpubs in the US would reflect the discovered literature on the topic: books on starting and managing a brewpub, brewpub directories and tour guides; articles from magazines and newspapers and perhaps journals (there must be an association of brewpub owners out there somewhere with their own trade publication); web sites of specific brewpubs, directory type sites listing brewpubs; listservs of brewpub owners or afficiandos, etc. You might locate scholarly journal articles or doctoral dissertations describing the reasons why brewpubs have returned after a 50 year hiatus.

You should list the sources that you found to be the most useful as well as those that best represent your topic.

Both your research essay and annotated bibliography must be typed or computer-printed. I will not accept e-mail submissions, nor submissions sent as an e-mail attachment.

Research Essay

Your essay should run from 6 to 10 pages in length. It can be longer if you wish. Let what you are writing about dictate the length and not the other way around. In other words, if you are having difficulty filling less than six pages about your topic and your research process, then you have not completely considered all aspects of the topic and your method. This will, obviously, result in a poor grade. More importantly, however, it shows that the material, methods and concepts taught in this course have not taken hold.

To summarize:

• Your essay will have three parts
  1. A precise description of your topic.
  2. A description of the research processes and methods you used.
  3. An analysis and a reflection on those processes, including problems encountered and success you found.
• Your essay will detail what you have discovered and learned, not only about your topic but also about research methods and sources.
• Quality is better than quantity.
• Aim for a 6-10 page essay.

• Has this subject been studied for a long time or is it new?
• Is it a sub-specialization within a larger field of study or does it stand alone?
• If your topic is extremely complex or requires special knowledge, you may need to explain your topic in lay terms (plain English) and/or provide definitions of specialized terms.
• Explain how the information in this subject area is organized.
• Is most of the current research being published in books, journals articles or other sources?
• Where is most of the research happening? In this country? In another? Which one?
• Is there a company, a university, an organization, an association that is the center for this research?
• Is research even being done?
• Where should your reader begin if s/he wishes to do further research on your topic?

• What did you already know about your topic that helped you begin your research?
• Where did you begin? With which finding tool? OLE? Print periodical indexes? Electronic? the Web? a subject pathfinder?
• How useful is the Internet in providing information on your topic? Is it more or less useful than print resources?
• How is your topic faring in the "information explosion"? Is there too much or not enough?
• How diverse is the information on your topic? Do some viewpoints seem to be missing? Are certain interest groups or individuals dominating the discussion on your topic?
• What are the differences in the way your topic is covered in the scholarly literature versus the popular? Does one or the other ignore your topic completely?
• What problems did you encounter in identifying information on your topic?
  • Is your topic well or poorly indexed by the major periodical indexes?
  • Is your topic scattered across many disciplines?
  • Is it difficult to find books or articles or internet information on your topic?
  • Are there cost issues preventing you from accessing information on your topic?
  • Is it difficult to distinguish between reliable and unreliable information on your topic?
  • Is there a glut of unreliable information on your topic?
• What problems did you have physically accessing information on your topic?
• Was there a lot of material here at the NMSU Library or did you have to order materials through inter library loan? or write to organizations for some information?
• What books, periodicals and electronic information sources or tools should the NMSU Library add to its collection to improve its collection on your topic?
• Are there web pages or sites on your topic that should be added to, or given a more prominent position on, the NMSU Library Web page?

• What stumbling blocks did you have? Why did they occur? Could they have been avoided or do they still exist?
• If beginning a new research project now, would you go about it any differently? How so?
• Continuing on with the question above, how do research methods differ from those you used prior to taking LSC 311?
• What advice would you give to someone starting out now on a similar research project?
• How do your previous ideas about electronic information (the Internet, etc.) compare to your knowledge of it now?
• What is the most important idea or concept you have learned about finding and/or using and/or evaluating information?
• What is the best information source or tool you have discovered?
• What is the most surprising thing you have learned about locating and/or using and/or evaluating information?

Be sure to write in complete, grammatically correct sentences, use proper punctuation and correct spelling.

Annotated Bibliography

Choose an organizational plan for your bibliography. You may want to organize your sources alphabetically, by author's name. Or you may want to organize your sources by subtopic and then by author. Or organize your sources by format (books, articles, internet sources, etc.) and then by alphabetically by author. Whatever your plan, make sure it is logically ordered. Don't make your reader try to guess your organizational plan.

A brief annotation must accompany each source you list. Your annotations may be descriptive, or evaluative, or both. You needn't read every word of every source you find in order to include it in your bibliography. You should, however, be familiar enough with the information each source provides to annotate it fairly and accurately. Fifty to one hundred words is a good length for your annotations.

Include enough information sources to cover your topic. Aim for 26-30 sources. You may find more, you may find less. If you include less than 15-16 sources, then you probably have too few and either your topic is too narrrow or you need to do a lot more hunting around. If you have over 45 sources then your topic is too broad and you need to pare it down a bit.

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by Susan E. Beck
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, NM

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You are welcome to use and copy these materials for educational purposes, but please credit the source as: LSC 311 Information Literacy, New Mexico State University, and cite the individual author of the modules you use. All commercial rights are reserved. Send comments or suggestions to: Susan E. Beck at susabeck@lib.nmsu.edu