Description:
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive, critical, and evaluative paragraph (the annotation) which provides your view of the relevance and importance of the source to the policy.
Students will write a concise annotation that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book, article or documentary. You will need a minimum of 10 sources, with a minimum of 4 scholarly articles from recognized research journals, and no more than 2 documentaries or films. Sources should be no older than 7 years.
It would be wise to have at least the relevant state or federal laws; state or national statistics; or government documents, as this bibliography will be used for your final assignment. Sources such as Wikipedia, about.com, or similar sites are not appropriate for this assignment.
Include one or more sentences that discusses or presents:
The authority or background of the author.
Intended audience and level of reading difficulty.
Purpose.
Bias or standpoint of the author.
Theoretical Framework/political stance/ School of thought.
Findings, results, arguments and conclusions.
Compare or contrast this work with another you have cited.
Explain how this work illuminates or is relevant to your policy.
We will be going over a wide variety of policies during the class this semester. A few examples of some policies that you might chose are social security, unemployment insurance, Temporary Assistance to Needy FAmilies, Section 8 Housing Assistance, Medicare or Medicaid. This is not a list of all the policies that are available this is just an example of a few. Feel free to reach out if you are unsure if something you would like to choose is appropriate and we can discuss futher.
Example:
Waite, L. J., Goldschneider, F. K., & Witsberger, C. (1986). Nonfamily living and the erosion of traditional family orientations among young adults. American Sociological Review, 51 (4), 541-554.
The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to test their hypothesis that nonfamily living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans, and expectations, moving them away from their belief in traditional sex roles. They find their hypothesis strongly supported in young females, while the effects were fewer in studies of young males. Increasing the time away from parents before marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about families. In contrast, an earlier study by Williams cited below shows no significant gender differences in sex role attitudes as a result of nonfamily living.
