The second assignment will be annotated bibliography on a
topic concerning Europe or its overseas connections in the period 1400-1800.
It is worth 10% of your course grade, and it is due on October 31.
The topic you choose will be closely related to the topic of your up-coming research essay, due November 14. As a guide to possible topics, see the list of “Suggested Research Directions” that was distributed with Assignment One. This is not an exhaustive list, but it should help you find an interesting and practical topic.
Work on this assignment should contribute significantly to your research for your chosen topic. If you choose useful books and articles for your bibliography, and analyze them in the course of doing this assignment, you will have a good idea of what scholars have said about your topic, and what a practical thesis might be for your essay.
There is a good guide to writing annotated bibliographies at the University of Wisconsin's web site:
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/AnnotatedBibliography.html
Reading through this guide should help you with this assignment. However, I have some specific requirements for your bibliography:
1. You must include at least five books or articles in the bibliography. If you wish to throw in a web site or two, and you are fortunate enough to find sites that are useful, you may do so, but they will be in addition to the printed sources. If you wish to include the book you read for the book review, it will be in addition to the five print sources I am requiring.
2. For the printed sources, your discussion (or entry) must be at least a page long (each source).
3. Each entry should be a combination of what the University of Wisconsin guide calls the "informative" and the "evaluative" styles. In other words, you summarize the source for your readers, and then, briefly but in an organized matter, evaluate its usefulness.
4. Each entry must be written in what the U. of W. guide calls the "paragraph" style: write full paragraphs, made up of complete sentences, starting with a strong topic sentence.
5. Each book or article must be described at the head of each entry in a proper bibliographic style. In a note on the last page of your bibliography, please tell me which recognized scholarly style you used. Some guides are available at the U. of W. site; of course if you bought the recmmended style guides this year or in some previous year, you already have a first-rate guide.
6. If a book or an article you use is not in the NU library, please tell me (at the end of the entry) where you found that book or article.
The most important thing to remember when writing your bibliography:
The books and articles you are hunting up, reading, describing and evaluating are part of your research on a specific topic. That means you will have to define your topic, and, when you are writing the assignment, you will have to make clear to your reader what that topic is. The easiest way of doing this to have a good, informative title. If you wish to add a brief paragraph clarifying your topic after the title, feel free to do so.
You don't need to know all about your topic before you begin looking for books, and you do not need to know what thesis you will adopt at that point, either. (You'll probably have a good idea by the time you finish the bibliography.) You do need a research direction, and your finished work should make clear how each printed source is relevant to the topic. Any bibliography that appears to be a random collection of sources will not be considered a successful assignment.
Likewise, in each entry you will want to describe for the reader (and for yourself!) how exactly the book or article is useful for you as a researcher on your topic. One book may be a good general outline of the period you are investigating; another may discuss a leading participant in the events; another may offer a provocative thesis concerning the causes of a famous event.
General policies:
I expect writing and organization in all your assignments
to maintain a university or professional level.
I expect correct spelling, proper grammar, and such essential
elements of a useful paper as page numbers.
See Policies
Regarding History Essays in Steve Muhlberger's Courses in particular
"Reasons I will return an essay ungraded!" #3-7 (#1 and #2 are relevant
to essays).