Unit 2: Doing Research

Unit 2: Doing Research
A2: Annotations
topic :::: food waste
·  Annotation  (annotation for popular source)  
Purpose and Focus:
·  The purpose of the research process is to craft a refined, meaningful inquiry question related to the course theme (which helps you focus your research) and to answer that question. You do this by gathering reliable, relevant, current sources and writing annotations for 4 sources.
·  By writing annotations for your sources, you demonstrate your close reading (by summarizing the sources) and your critical reading (by analyzing the sources) 
o  (NOTE:  I encourage you to find more than 4 sources as you research, but only 4 will be annotated and turned in for a grade.)
Some important notes about your inquiry question and annotations:
·  For your annotations, do not use articles from the reader, those that have been provided or linked on Canvas, or those previously assigned in class.  The purpose is for you to gain research expertise and to develop your understanding of an issue by locating different perspectives, not to annotate sources already found for you. If you choose, you may use articles from these locations in Assignment 3.
Development for Audience:
For this assignment, your primary audience will be yourself, your instructor, and your classmates (an academic audience). As you develop your annotations for your audience, you’ll need to:
·  Research a variety of different sources
·  Ensure your annotations reflect a range of perspectives, are written for a range of stakeholders, etc.
·  Include two popular sources and two scholarly, academic sources
·  Ensure that all four come from CU library databases
·  Annotations are composed of the following:
·  a complete and accurate citation in MLA format;
·  a summary of the entire text
o  NOTE:  Copying and pasting the abstract of an article OR summarizing ONLY the abstract (rather than reading and summarizing the entire article) are forms of plagiarism/academic dishonesty.  You need to read the text and write an original summary for it.
·  an analysis of the source that explains
o  what makes the source reliable. Consider: How does the author demonstrate ethos? What are the author’s credentials? What types of evidence does the author use? What genre have they chosen to publish in?
o  what information, viewpoints, evidence, etc. seem as if they will be most helpful when you’re writing your argument.  Consider: Is this information valuable for background/introductory material? Are there striking examples that you might use for evidence? Could the author’s ideas be a counterargument you’ll refute? Does the author engage his/her audience by using rhetorical strategies that you might also use?
o  how the source compares with other sources you’ve found and contributes to understanding the conversation on the issue. It is important to seek a range of sources representing variation in position and perspective rather than simply sources that all agree. Consider: how does this information confirm, conflict with, and/or offer a new perspective on the information you’ve gathered from other sources?
Genre Conventions and Organization:
The annotations you write will be 300 words per annotation. Annotations have very strict organizational standards and formats. Pay attention in class as we discuss the genre.
Style and Mechanics:
Your tone and “voice” should be appropriate for your subject matter, audience, and the academic context in which you are writing.  Your text should be grammatically correct and written in Standard English. 
so basically we have to choose 4 sources and do annotation as per instructions