Annotated Bibliography in Geography Topic

Project Overview: For this project, you’ll choose a food or drink item, a cuisine, an invention, or an idea, and then research how four geographic concepts are related to and affect your topic. Instead of presenting your research as a traditional paper, you’ll use PowerPoint to create a narrated presentation. Your presentation will be structured like a paper, including a title, introduction to the topic, main body, summary and conclusions, and references. Creative use of properly cited graphics and photos from the Internet relevant to your topic is required.

First, choose a food item, cuisine, invention, or idea that interests you. Some will have more information available about them than others, so it’s worth doing some investigation before you settle on one. If you’re not sure if your desired topic is appropriate, please feel free to ask!

Once you have selected your topic, you will then do research to see how each of the following geographic concepts affects or is related to your topic:

1. Regions
 2. Cultural Landscape
 3. Diffusion
 4. Distance decay. 

The first two concepts are covered in the first chapter of your textbook. Diffusion is covered in Chapter 8, Section 2 (page 484). Distance decay refers to the fact that influence and interaction between locations decreases as the distance between them increases. As such, it has a significant influence on how things change as they diffuse away from their point of origin. Be sure to address these specific geographic terms and concepts in your work. You don’t need to address them in this order, but you do need to address all of them. You may use “subsets” of these definitions (e.g. contagious diffusion) if such subsets exist. Be sure to refer to your text and other reliable resources to ensure you completely understand these concepts. You should be detailed in your treatment of these concepts – for instance, you should explain both how and why your choice varies by region, and how and why it has been affected by distance decay. Remember that geography, as an academic discipline, seeks to explain why things vary from place to place, not just describe how they do.

You will complete this project in 3 separate assignments: an annotated bibliography, an outline, and your final presentation. In this assignment, you will complete your annotated bibliography. Completing the project in separate assignments allows you to work your way up to the final presentation, and provides opportunity for feedback along the way.

Assignment Objective: Assess sources for your research for your final presentation (for credibility, reliability, and relevance) and list references in proper APA format through the creation of an annotated bibliography.

Assignment Instructions: An annotation is a summary and evaluation, and your annotated bibliography will include a summary and evaluation of some of the sources (or references) you will use for your presentation.

To prepare for this assignment, I recommend that you do the following:

Read these directions carefully.
Review the sample annotated bibliography provided to you below.
Read the grading criteria below.The grading criteria is a detailed evaluation that I will use to assess your performance. It also will help you understand what is expected you as you prepare your assignment.

The reason the annotated bibliography is included as part of the research project is that writing an annotated bibliography provides excellent preparation for the final presentation. One of the issues regarding any type of research is the credibility of the sources used, particularly those obtained from various websites. By forcing you to evaluate your potential sources carefully, the annotated bibliography helps you determine if the sources you chose are credible and relevant to your topic. It will also help you understand the topic better, which will help you develop your presentation.

For this project, you will assess three sources to include:

1) a complete citation for each source,

2) a summary of each source, and

3) an evaluation of each source.

Three sources are required for this assignment (i.e., you are to write an annotation for each source). However, you must use five or more sources in your final presentation.

Use the TEMPLATE below to summarize and evaluate each of your three sources.

Citation:

Written in APA reference list format. For more help with formatting, see APA handout.

Summary:

What is the purpose of the source, review article, original research? What topics are covered? This section is generally 3-5 sentences that summarize the author’s main point. For more help, see this link on paraphrasing sources.

Evaluation:

After summarizing the article (or research paper or book), it is necessary to evaluate it and state where you found it – its source (e.g.,journal, website, etc.). Briefly answer the following questions in 3-5 sentences:

What is the format or type of source (e.g., peer-reviewed journal paper, website, book)? How reliable is the information in the article, and how credible is the source (e.g., website’s sponsoring organization, journal or book publisher) and the author(s)?