For this assignment, you will need to gather 3 sources that answer a research question that you’d like to further explore. For example, if your question is: Why are criminal recidivism rates so high in America? You would then find 3 sources that attempted to answer this question.
Two of your sources must come from peer-reviewed academic articles, the other one can come from other good, edited sources that are non-academic. You may use books, videos, websites (careful!), or other relevant sources.
Each annotation (that is, each summary of a source’s contents), will consist of an approximately 300-word paragraph (one page) summarizing the piece. The paragraph must identify:
- the authors’ hypothesis
- author’s methodology
- major findings of his/her research
You may bullet-point your summary to make it easier to read.
Format the document as follows:
1) At the top of the assignment write your research question. This is actually a critical step since you will be graded on whether your sources answer your question. I suggest getting your research question approved by me before continuing.
2) For each source, you write a citation at the top. Please use the following format:
For a research article: Smart, G. H. (2020). Declining violence in norther New Jersey schools. Journal of adolescent Behavior, 15(3), 396-419.
For a book: Smart, G. H. (2019). School Violence in Northern New Jersey. New York: Columbia University Press.
For a website: Smart, G. H. (2019, April 10). Whales likely impacted by Great Pacific garbage patch. The Ocean Cleanup. https://www.theoceancleanup.com/updates/whales-likely-impacted-by-great-pacific-garbage-patch/
For a news article: Smart, G. H. (2018, June 30). Why is there so much violence in schools? North New Jersey News. [Add URL if available]
3) Immediately after each source citation copy and paste the link to your source (if online). Then write a one to two-line summary of how this source answers your research question. Following that, write a 300- word summary of the source, making sure to highlight the main points:
- the authors’ hypothesis
- author’s methodology
- major findings of his/her research
- Make sure to write the author’s main argument up-front.
- Write so that someone who has never read the article/book/etc. would have a good sense of what was written just from reading your summary.
- You may use no more than one quote from the source.
- See example below
Note that you will be graded on the quality of your summaries, the quality of your sources, and whether the articles you found will help you answer the research question you want to answer.
Example:
Reuter, T. R., Newcomb, M. E., Whitton, S. W., & Mustanski, B. (2017). Intimate partner violence victimization in LGBT young adults: Demographic differences and associations with health behaviors. Psychology of Violence, 7(1), 101-109.
Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28451465/
The authors hypothesized that female-identifying racial minority members of the LGBT+ community were more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) than their male-identifying white counterparts. Furthermore, they hypothesized that IPV would be associated with certain health habits, such as high usage of alcohol and marijuana. The study drew from a sample of 172 ethnically diverse members of the LGBT+ community in the Chicago area. Each participant first was prompted to complete a demographic form, then was asked a series of questions designed to assess if the interviewee was physically abused by, forced to participate in sex acts with, or verbally abused by an intimate partner. Furthermore, participants were prompted to fill out the HIV Risk Assessment of Sexual Partnerships to determine mental health symptoms and sexual risk-taking. Finally, the study collected self-reports of marijuana and alcohol use among participants. Each participant then received a 4 year and 5-year follow-up interview. The results confirmed results found in previous studies of heterosexual relationships: that female, male-to-female transgender, and African American participants were at the highest risk of victimization. The only difference in IPV between sexual minorities in the study was that lesbian partnerships were more likely to perpetrate IPV. Furthermore, the study found that victims of IPV in the study were at higher risk of developing depression and anxiety, which was again in line with previous studies. While IPV was not the cause of current anxiety, upon a follow-up investigation one year later, IPV was the cause of increased anxiety among those interviewed. Finally, the study also found that there was a correlation between sexual risk-taking (such as unprotected sex) and IPV.