Assignment Details

This abstract and annotated bibliography demonstrates your emerging sociological investigative skills.

• Abstract: this will be a 200-word-minimum summary of your chosen contemporary social issue and prior research, research you will describe in further detail in the next section (your annotated bibliography). Your abstract must include:

• • why you chose to write on your chosen contemporary social issue
  • why this social issue is a significant problem in contemporary society
  • a summary of the major sociological theories and concepts that other researchers have used to investigate this issue (i.e. prominent theorists such as Karl Marx, theories like feminism, processes such as socialization, terms like social stratification)
  • a concise summary of what other researchers found in their examination of your chosen contemporary social issue including common themes, contradictory findings, etc.

*Note: Questions to consider when writing your abstract: “What information does a reader need to understand this social issue?” and “Why does knowing more about this social issue and corresponding research matter?”

• Annotated Bibliography: the purpose of an annotated bibliography is to inform the reader of the relevance, quality, and results of existing research on your chosen social issue. Your paper must include 6 annotations, and each annotation must be a minimum of 200 words. Consider the following points as you construct each annotation:

• • Describe briefly the content of a resource
  • Evaluate the relevancy of a resource to your chosen social issue
  • Explain the methodology that was used
  • Draw attention to any themes addressed
  • Highlight strengths and/or weaknesses
  • Discuss the reliability of the author or source
• Works cited: this is the conclusion of your paper. In proper MLA or APA formatting, you will cite which works you used in your paper that are not the direct citations for each annotation. For example, our textbook would be cited on this page if you used it to inform your sociological review in your Abstract.

• General guidelines: This paper must be submitted with proper citation in either MLA or APA formats (both are acceptable). It must be submitted as a Word document in the appropriate Abstract & Annotated Bibliography submission page. There is no page limit as each section’s requirements will provide enough to write a solid paper.

• Here’s a Helpful Example

• we provides an excellent resource for writing an annotated bibliography, which I’ve included here for you to download as a PDF. It shows an example of a well-written annotated bibliography as well as a fillable outline for you to use as you write your own paper. I highly recommend using this resource as a guide for your paper!
  

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  Resources

  TEXTBOOK & SEARCH ENGINES

  Our textbook is an excellent starting resource for research. You can find our textbook readings by clicking this link Introduction to Sociology textbook, or by downloading the PDF of the textbook here. At the end of every chapter you will find a references page (here’s an example from Chapter 1: References) where you can skim through the research the authors used to inform their work. You can also use Google Scholar.

  FORMATTING HELP

  Check out the Purdue OWL site for their helpful Citation Style Guide, which outlines how to correctly write citations according to MLA and APA rules (the two most common style guides).