Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Part I:

Write a one-paragraph summary of your project. In this paragraph please: 1) explain the problem/issue you are exploring and 2) provide a thesis statement (a one-sentence summary of what you would argue if you were actually writing a paper). To be clear, you are not writing a paper for this assignment. You are merely taking the first steps of writing a paper.

Part II:

Create an annotated bibliography with 5 sources. For each source, provide the appropriate bibliographic material and a one paragraph summary of the text. In your summary, assess the value of the source for your project.

Appropriate sources include books, scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers. (See the Sample Annotated Bibliography below for sample summaries.)

Please use MLA Style for your citations:

Sample MLA Citations

Book:
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin, 1987. Print.

Periodical:
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical Day Month Year: pages. Medium of publication.
Poniewozik, James. “TV Makes a Too-Close Call.” Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71. Print.

Electronic sources: See https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/

Sample Annotated Bibliography
(for the purpose of modeling appropriate summaries, not citation style)

Bucher, Jaime, et al. “Complementary and alternative medicine use among women at increased genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancer.” BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 8.17 (2008): 17. 27 Mar. 2012.
This journal article is about the use of complementary alternative medicine (CAM) in accompaniment with traditional medical treatment in women with breast cancer. The article evaluates the efficacy of CAM in comparison with various other methods of alternative medicine, and effectiveness is judged based on rate of recovery/disease improvement. In relation to my research paper, this article could be moderately useful for demonstrating the relationship between medicine and religion in different forms of Christianity. However, because this article does not reference a specific religion, rather a generalized method of healing through prayer, it is not as valuable of a source as I’d hoped.
Huang, Steven W. “For the love of a child: Christian Science v. medicine.” Medical Trial Technique Quarterly Winter 1997: 135-158. 27 Mar. 2012.
This source is from a Medical trial journal and it describes the impact of the Christian Science religion and their views on medicine, and how that affects the lives of their group members. In particular, the source evaluates the destructive effects of Christian Science parents refusing medical treatment for their children, even when they are gravely ill. There is a lot of debate in the court systems as to whether this can be considered child abuse and how to handle the issue, given the First Amendment rights for religious freedom and the freedom to practice those beliefs without interference from the government. This source is extremely useful for my topic because it shows the religious beliefs of the Christian Scientists and how they relate (or go against) medicine. I can definitely use this source for my paper.
Krause, Kenneth W. “When faith kills; Christian healing v. scientific medicine.” Skeptic [Altadena, CA] 14.4 (2009): 45+. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.
This source is very similar to the one above. It evaluates case studies of deaths among the Christian Science community and whether they were preventable using modern medicine. In all of these cases, families chose to use prayer/Christian healing methods and denied treatment via medical practices. Many of the deaths occurred due to easily curable diseases (such as ear infections, pneumonia, the flu, etc) or sicknesses that can be managed by medicine (like diabetes). This source, like the one above, is incredibly useful for my topic because it gives great insight into how Christian Scientists will revert to prayer, no matter the circumstance, and never use medicine as a form of healing.