UGS 303: What's Green about THAT? Communicating about the Environment
Dr. LeeAnn Kahlor
Annotated Bibliography Assignment
Due Date: Friday, September 30, 2011
An annotated bibliography is a list of sources on a topic that includes a summary and evaluation of each of the sources.
The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to finding and evaluating peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles, a set of skills that you will use in your research throughout this course.
After completing this assignment, you will be able:

Define what a scholarly journal article is and its purpose

Choose an appropriate database to find scholarly journal articles on a multidisciplinary topic

Identify relevant keywords to efficiently search for scholarly journal articles on a narrow topic

Evaluate a scholarly article’s relationship to a broader topic as someone new to the study of that topic and summarize its main points

Cite a source properly in APA style
The sources you find and include on your annotated bibliography should help you consider the research question:
How does cognitive neuroscience help to explain the formation of our personal beliefs about the environment?
You will find 3 peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles that you evaluate as useful in connecting the ideas in Dr. Alison Preston’s September 23 rd lecture on how our brains predict our future to the idea of how we form environmental beliefs.
Keep in mind that the articles you find may not make the direct connection between neuroscience and environmental beliefs. However, the sources you choose should help you make the connection yourself and you should be able to describe how the information presented in the article helps you consider the connection as a researcher. For example, an article about the psychology of one’s belief in climate change is addressing a narrower aspect of the above research question and might include helpful information in considering the connection between the two topics. Your annotation should explain why you chose the particular article and its connection to the broader research question.
For each source that you choose, provide a citation to the source in APA format, followed by an
annotation of 150-200 words that summarizes and evaluates the source. Your annotations should be in
12pt font and double-spaced.
The annotation should address the following questions:

Summarize: What are the main arguments or research findings presented in the article? What topics are covered in the article? If someone asked what this article is about, what would you say?
Evaluate: Why did you choose this source? How does it compare with the other sources in your bibliography? How does it relate to the connection between neuroscience and environmental beliefs?
Resources:

You will be guided through this research during a library instruction session on Friday,
September 9. Additional information, including recommended databases, research strategies, reading and comprehension strategies for scholarly journal articles, evaluation criteria, and citation assistance will be available online at: http://guides.lib.utexas.edu/subjects/ugs303kahlor

The Online Writing Center at Purdue University provides a useful guide for understanding how to create an annotated bibliography. Follow the links to an example in the left-hand navigation: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/

NoodleBib is an online software program that can help you to create your citations in APA style and format your citation and annotations properly. http://lib.utexas.edu/noodlebib