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Supervised Ministry: Annotated Bibliography

The Language of Research

Research can seem like a different language with its own vocabulary. So, when you are assigned specific types of projects, it's a good idea to have a thorough grounding in the language that your professors use.

  • Study: The written results of a reproducible, controlled project or experiment, either with large numbers of subjects (empirical studies) or just a few (case studies). 
  • Literature Review: A multidisciplinary, semi-exhaustive exploration of all of the research published about a specific topic.
  • Basic Bibliography: Basic formatted list of citations from a study or a literature review
  • Annotated Bibliography: A formatted list of citations from a study or a literature review that also summarize and evaluate each resource using a standardized list of criteria.
General Principles to Get You Started

Make a Research Plan

Seriously, DO NOT skip this step, or just "do it in your head." Write it down! Having a formal research plan, even though you won't ever turn it in, will help you streamline your research and make it take much less time.

Also, treat your research plan as a dynamic, living document.

  • Adapt it and edit it as you learn more.
  • When new sub-questions (or tangential questions) occur to you, add them.
    • These will become great possible questions for your NEXT assignment!
    • If you don't write them down, they distract you, or you forget them
  • As you refine your searches in practice, record what works and what doesn't
    • You can then repeat useful strategies across searching platforms!

Cite BEFORE You Read

It sounds weird until you are used to it, but it really is best to start your research with creating your citations. As soon as you select a source to read, set up the citation in your citation manager or even on an old-fashioned index card. Then, as you read and take notes, you can simply record the citation number and the page number you are reading. And, if you find that the source is not useful, you can remove it from your list with little effort. This will help you keep your information organized, help you avoid accidental plagiarism, and track your research.

Take Notes on What You Read

Taking notes is critical to preventing accidental plagiarism and other academic integrity violations. If you are using printed journal articles, you can highlight them and/or take notes in the margins, but remember not to mark in library books. We still get mad about that!

Some common note-taking systems:

  • Index cards (yes, even in the 21st century!)
  • Note-taking Programss (Google Docs, Evernote, etc)
  • Highlighting and post-it notes
    • Use new post-it notes so you don't lose the squares
    • Really more useful for close reading an article
  • Other Digital tools (like Hypothesis or some e-readers)
    • Again, more useful for close-reading article

Need Help? Ask Me!

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Dora Rowe
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