What: In this assignment, you will NOT write a complete essay but you will provide the results of your research in an annotated bibliography of at least six sources and an abstract of your findings. You will investigate the cultural impact of one of the following figure’s ideas on modern culture in the twentieth century:
1. Charles Darwin
2. Karl Marx
3. Friedrich Nietzsche
4. Sigmund Freud
5. Albert Einstein
You should attempt to discover how and why your selected figure challenged certainties and influenced the attitudes and values of the Modernist period. To answer this, you need to conduct research and identify six sources that help you gain insights into your selected figure, his ideas, and impact on culture.
These sources must be authored (no anonymous encyclopedia or web sources allowed): books (print or electronic), scholarly journals (no periodicals such as magazines or newspapers). If an online source, you must use sources available from Wentworth’s online databases. Seek the assistance of the reference librarians to direct you to the best sources. Your success in this assignment will be determined by your ability to find the best and more authoritative sources available. Do not settle for whatever is available. Find the most useful and most credible sources.
Why: This assignment develops your research skills to find and synthesize secondary sources to help you to answer the essay’s topic. Research skills are central to your work in the humanities at Wentworth and in other disciplines, and you need to be familiar with the print and online resources that are available. To produce a effective abstract and annotated bibliography, you will need to develop your skills in synthesizing data and reaching conclusions based on your synthesis. These skills will be invaluable for your future academic work.
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How: To complete the assignment, first select one of the thinkers above to investigate. Here you might start with basic sources like encyclopedias just for the basics before moving on to authoritative, scholarly sources. I strongly advise you to consult with one of Wentworth’s reference librarians to help guide you to the best possible sources. You are, in effect, planning to write a research essay titled: The Impact of [Your figure]’s Ideas on Modernism. You want to find sources that will help you fully understand your figure’s ideas and how those ideas influenced modern culture. Sources might be book-length treatments of your subject, a chapter from a book on multiple figures, or book or journal articles (print or online from databases) that similarly treat your topic.
After finding your sources, you need to read them and extract the key ideas from each, especially the thesis and key evidence that proves the thesis. This information will be summarized in your annotated bibliography.
Writing an Annotated Bibliography
Your annotated bibliography should include the following:
1) Cite each source in correct MLA Works Cited format. You can use on-line
citation creators, such as Easy-Bib or those included in Wentworth’s on-line
databases, but check all against a guide, such as Rules for Writers.
2) Summarize succinctly and briefly each source, concentrating on its thesis, key
claims and evidence.
3) Discuss how each source will aid in your “essays” development.
Sample MLA formatted Annotated Bibliography are posted on Blackboard in the Week 10 Assignment folder.
Writing the Abstract
An MLA-style abstract is a concise review of a finished research paper that summarizes the objective, subject-matter, methods, counter-arguments, and conclusions of the essay. It offers an explanation of what was done and what was discovered in a concise manner. Even though you will not write the full essay in this assignment, your abstract should summarize what you would have written: summarize your conclusions on the impact of your figure’s ideas on modern culture, supporting your assertions with the evidence from your six sources. Keep these points in mind:
• The abstract is a short description of the objective, methods, findings, and conclusions of your research: it should be a single paragraph, 150 – 200 words long.
• State why you decided to conduct the research on the subject and why it should matter to your reader.
• Give an account of what you found as a result of your research.
• Abstract should be double-spaced and properly MLA formatted. See sample.