Conducting scholarly research is a skill that many students have not sufficiently developed, but it is a crucial component of successfully completing an upper-level degree. This project gives students an opportunity to conduct research and analyze scholarly sources.
The student will select as a topic one of the ‘core objects’ from Art 114, conduct research on this object, and supply an annotated bibliography of three scholarly sources. An annotated bibliography is a list of sources with analytical summaries of the information contained in each.
Prompt:
For your papers, you’ll be writing an annotated bibliography, which is a list of sources accompanied by an analytical summary (‘annotation’) of the source. An annotated bibliography is a useful tool when you are compiling research, especially for longer projects or when you might work on the same topic in the future. It also helps you learn how to effectively research by assessing sources, determining bias, identifying arguments, and focusing on how the source pertains to your topic.
For this assignment, you will be writing a bibliography with at least 3 scholarly sources found through the JSTOR database. JSTOR is an online collection with millions of scholarly journal articles. Many of the articles are available in full-text format. Note: in order to receive credit the source must be 1.) from a scholarly journal (examples: The Art Bulletin, American Journal of Archaeology, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, etc.). Book reviews and abstracts are not acceptable sources. 2.) the article must be less than 50 years old. Scholarship is constantly changing and evolving, and sources that are more than 50 years old are often out of date.
List each source in alphabetical order by author’s last name. At the top of each source entry, include a bibliographic citation formatted using MLA citation style guidelines. There is a link to a handy resource on citing with MLA in the Writing Assignment folder.
Below your bibliographic resource, write a paragraph or two analyzing and summarizing the source. This annotation should be at least 250+ words and include parenthetical MLA citations as needed.
In the annotation you should include:
Example Annotation for a paper about Gothic stained glass:
West Tympanum Rose Window, Reims Cathedral, Gothic France, c. 1240CE
Smith, Rebecca. “Flowers of Fragility: Examining the Structure and Design of Rose Windows.” AVISTA Forum Journal, vol. 23, 2013, pp. 52-59.
This article examines the physical structure and geometric design of Gothic rose windows, including examples from early, high, and late Gothic France, England, and Germany. In the article, Smith argues that rose window design grow in size, maximizing the amount of glass, until they reach a threshold where the wind loads overwhelm the stones’ capacity, causing structural issues and breaks, and requiring emergency interventions (Smith 52-56). As a result, Smith argues that windows become more smaller but more elaborate in compensation (Smith 56-57). Rebecca Smith has a PhD in medieval art history and so is qualified to comment on the design of medieval windows. One possible issue with her credibility is that the article also analyzes the physical and engineering capabilities of medieval stonework, but the author does not have a degree in engineering, nor did she discuss any personal experience in structural testing on medieval stones in the article (Smith 52-59).
This article would be useful for my research on the Reims’s west tympanum rose window because it approaches the issue from a physical perspective, looking at the real-life capabilities of stained glass and its supporting stonework. Reims Cathedral is one of the first sites where the thin bar tracery is introduced and determining the physical capabilities of the tracery would help in analyzing the design. This would also round out my discussion on medieval glass as most of my other sources examine the windows’ iconography, colors used, or the visual style of the figures. I would use this article to support a discussion about the overall sizing of stained-glass panels and of rose windows, generally.
Your bibliography will be graded based on the rubric below.
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Criteria |
Does not meet expectations |
Meets Minimum Expectations |
Meets or Exceeds Expectations |
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Research Sources (0 – 30 points) |
The bibliography does not include 3 relevant sources. A majority or all of the sources were not scholarly journal articles. Significant errors present with MLA formatting
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A minimum of 3 sources were included. At least one of the sources was not eligible or a scholarly journal article. Some errors may have been present with MLA formatting
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A minimum of 3 scholarly journal article sources available through the JSTOR database were included. Correct MLA formatting was used to list sources.
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Quality of Annotations (0 – 50 points) |
The annotations are overly short of the word minimum or incomplete, and do not demonstrate the student engaged with the source. Two or more annotations are missing at least two of the required components: a thorough summary of the source, including the main argument or thesis; an overview of the author; and an explanation of how the resource would be used in a research paper on this topic.
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Some of the annotations demonstrate the student engaged with the source but did not read it thoroughly or think critically about how it would be used in a research paper. One of the annotations are missing at least one of the following components: a thorough summary of the source, including the main argument or thesis; an overview of the author; and an explanation of how the resource would be used in a research paper on this topic.
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The annotations demonstrate the student engaged with the source in-depth, thought critically about how it would be used in a research paper, and included all of the following components: a thorough summary of the source, including the main argument or thesis; an overview of the author; and an explanation of how the resource would be used in a research paper on this topic.
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Clarity of Annotations (0 – 20 points) |
More than three spelling and / or grammar issues were present; annotations were significantly under minimum word count (by 50 or more words)
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Fewer than three spelling or grammar errors were noted; annotations may have been slightly under minimum word count (by 50 or less words)
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No grammar or spelling errors were noted; minimum word count met for all three annotations
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