RESEARCH & ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY INSTRUCTIONS
SOURCES REQUIRED: Minimum of 12 — most will be from the politics and current
events research (Political party websites, politicians websites, newspaper articles,
social media).
Here is the research that needs to be done:
1) Basic definitions and explanations (assume your audience does not know the topic)
A) The beginning of any presentation should provide definitions, examples,
charts, pictures, whatever you need to explain your topic. Try and think about why this
subject is being assigned in a government class, and how you are going to explain it to
the rest of the class. The source for this should not be Wikipedia (it has its uses, just not
for this purpose). The source should not be a .com website, or from a biased
organization. The best source for basic information is from the library databases.
B) All sources must have proper citations.*
2) History
A) All of the topics have a history in the United States. You do not need a several
page detailed history, but a brief summary. Again, do not assume your audience knows
this history. This is another area where you should get most of your information from the
library databases. For example, if you are doing Black Lives Matters and other social
movements, you can provide examples of social movements in the history of the US
before BLM such as abolitionism, womens voting rights, civil rights movements for
Latinos, African Americans, and American Indians, etc. The textbook also has brief
histories on many of your topics.
B) All sources and images must have proper citations.*
3) Politics and controversies (1 or more people may want to work on this topic)
A) We are in an election season, and the Democratic and Republican parties
should have an opinion on each of these topics. To start your research, go to the state
and national party websites and look for their platform and issues what is their stance
on your topic? Since this information can often be vague, you will also need to look
through individual politicians websites (Senators, House of Representatives members)
to see their official stance. Be sure to get the official stance before you start looking for
the controversies. Opponents often misrepresent what a politician says their position is,
and this is where you can report that controversy. So look at party websites, politicians
websites, and then you can start looking through newspaper and social media to find
controversial statements. Its really important to have a balanced view here because if
you only look at only one side, you wont be doing good research.
B) All sources and images must have proper citations.*
4) Current events (1 or more people may want to on this topic)
A) Find out what is happening right now with your topic. For example, if you are
doing education, whether schools are open or not during a Covid spike is a hot topic.
You can look around El Paso and around the country to compare. This is where the
librarys newspaper databases will really be important to access. Before Covid,
education was part of the national conversation because of actions taken by Betsy
DeVos, Education Cabinet Secretary. So you can go back a few years and look for
current events that are still relevant today. Whoever is doing this research needs to stay
up-to-date with the current events this is not a one-time project some things change
fast.
B) All sources and images must have proper citations.*
*Each source should be presented in APA or MLA format and will be followed by a
paragraph that includes a summary, and explains why the source is authoritative
(authoritative means it comes from an expert, an academic paper, an educational
source, a government source, well-regarded newspaper or magazine, or a website that
uses properly sourced research or is also run by experts in the field).
Always keep the final presentation in mind. I would prefer that you record a slide show
and talk over the slide. If that is not in your technological abilities (share the screen), the
next thing would be to create a slide show with enough text, pictures and content that a
verbal voice-over isnt necessary. You will be sharing your presentation with the rest of
the class. So make sure you keep interesting things you come across in your group files
what everyone needs to know, interesting pictures, helpful sources, etc
1) Create a document and save as .docx or .pdf. Your Annotated Bibliography should
be typed, double-spaced, with your name, class, class time, and title (see format in the
sample AB)
2) Name your document: GOVT 2305 AB TopicName
m.
Essentially the AB must include preliminary research and explanation for why the
source will be relevant to the final presentation, and why the source is accurate and unbiased.
Except for politics or opinion, the source should be from an expert, a scientist, an unbiased
researcher, or a professional journalist.
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