Touchstones are projects that illustrate your comprehension of the course material, help you refine skills, and demonstrate application of knowledge. You can work on a Touchstone anytime, but you can’t submit it until you have completed the unit’s Challenges. Once you’ve submitted a Touchstone, it will be graded and counted toward your final course score.
Touchstone 2.2: Create an Annotated Bibliography
ASSIGNMENT: Using your research question, working thesis, and outline from Touchstone 1.2, create an annotated bibliography that provides a synopsis of your sources and an explanation of how you will use them.
As this assignment builds on Touchstone 1.2: Write a Research Question, Thesis, and Outline, that Touchstone, as well as Touchstone 2.1, must be graded before you can submit your annotated bibliography.
Sample Touchstone 2.2
In order to foster learning and growth, all work you submit must be newly written specifically for this course. Any plagiarized or recycled work will result in a Plagiarism Detected alert. Review Touchstones: Academic Integrity Guidelines for more about plagiarism and the Plagiarism Detected alert. For guidance on the use of generative AI technology, review Ethical Standards and Appropriate Use of AI.
A. Assignment Guidelines
DIRECTIONS: Refer to the list below throughout the writing process. Do not submit your Touchstone until it meets these guidelines. Refer to the Sample Touchstone for additional guidance on structure, formatting, and citation.
1. Annotated Bibliography
Make sure to:
❒ Alphabetize the entries, according to APA Style.
❒ Include the required bibliographic information in APA format for each entry.
❒ Include 5-6 sentences for each entry that provide a short summary of the source (with page or paragraph-numbered citations) and how you plan to use it to support your argument.
❒ Include at least seven entries in your annotated bibliography, all of which must be credible (i.e., authentic, reputable, authoritative), reliable (e.g., contains current and valid data collection and analysis), and relevant academic sources.(Use Google Scholar if you do not have access to an academic search database through your institution).
❒ Choose your own sources, but use no more than three websites (there is no limit on the number of online scholarly journals used).
❒ Thoroughly check the formatting requirements for the different source types.
❒ After each relevant entry indicate the source type in parentheses (book, peer-reviewed journal, newspaper/magazine, and credible website) by including the source type in parentheses after the relevant entry.
2. Reflection
❒ Have you displayed a clear understanding of the research activities?
❒ Have you answered all reflection questions including specific and concrete examples that provide thoughtful insight in all responses?
❒ Are your answers included on a separate page below the main assignment?
B. Reflection Questions
DIRECTIONS: Below your assignment, include answers to all of the following reflection questions.
Accurately recording bibliographic information is essential and saves you time, as you can transfer this information to the References page of your drafted essay. Each source entry should include a brief summary of the source as well as 3-4 sentences describing how you intend to use that source to build or support your argument. Discuss how your annotated bibliography meets these criteria. (2-3 sentences)
Which strategies were most helpful for you when searching for credible sources? (2-3 sentences)
What difficulties did you face while searching for credible sources? How did you overcome these difficulties? (2-3 sentences)
C. Rubric
Advanced (100%) Proficient (85%) Acceptable (75%) Needs Improvement (50%) Non-Performance (0%)
Annotated Bibliography
Fulfill all annotated bibliography requirements and include usable notes on sources. (40%)
Meets all source criteria, thoroughly and effectively summarizes the core ideas for all sources with citations and effectively explains how each source will be used to support the argument. Meets all source criteria, effectively summarizes the core ideas for all sources with citations and effectively explains how each source will be used to support the argument. Meets the majority of source criteria, summarizes the core ideas effectively with citations for the majority of the sources (one or two source summaries may lack detail), and explains how the majority of the sources will be used to support the argument (for one or two sources, the explanation of support is unclear). Meets some source criteria, summarizes the core ideas for some sources (many summaries are absent or lacking in detail or may not contain citations. Explains how some of the sources will be used to support the argument (for many of the sources, the explanation of support is unclear or absent). Meets few or none of the source criteria, summarizes few or none of the sources (or the summaries are all lacking in detail or do not contain citations), does not explain the connection to the argument, and/or summaries and/or citations included are inaccurate.
Quality of Sources
Choose reputable, academically appropriate research sources. (30%)
All sources are credible, reliable, relevant, and properly formatted as exemplified in the course instruction. Source data/URLs are present and accurate. Majority of sources are credible, reliable, relevant, and properly formatted as exemplified in the course instructions. Source data/URLs are present and accurate. Some sources are credible, reliable, relevant, and properly formatted as exemplified in the course instructions. Source data/URLs are present and accurate. Majority of sources are not credible, reliable, relevant, or properly formatted as exemplified in the course instructions. Source data/URLs might not be present and/or accurate. Sources do not adhere to the quality standards taught in this course, there are minimal sources present, and/or . source data/ URLs are non-existent or inaccurate.
Style
Establish a consistent, informative tone and make thoughtful stylistic choices. (10%)
Demonstrates thoughtful and effective word choices, avoids redundancy and imprecise language, and uses a wide variety of sentence structures. Demonstrates effective word choices, primarily avoids redundancy and imprecise language, and uses a variety of sentence structures. Demonstrates generally effective style choices, but may include occasional redundancies, imprecise language, poor word choice, and/or repetitive sentence structures. Frequently includes poor word choices, redundancies, imprecise language, and/or repetitive sentence structures. Consistently demonstrates poor word choices, redundancies, imprecise language, and/or repetitive sentence structures.
Conventions
Follow conventions for standard written English. (10%)
There are only a few, if any, negligible errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage. There are occasional minor errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage. There are some significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage. There are frequent significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage. There are consistent significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.
Reflection
Answer reflection questions thoroughly and thoughtfully. (10%)
Demonstrates thoughtful reflection; consistently includes specific and concrete examples that provide thoughtful insight, following or exceeding response length guidelines. Demonstrates thoughtful reflection; includes multiple specific and concrete examples that provide thoughtful insight, following response length guidelines. Primarily demonstrates thoughtful reflection, but some responses are lacking in detail or insight; primarily follows response length guidelines. Shows limited reflection; the majority of responses are lacking in detail or insight, with some questions left unanswered or falling short of response length guidelines. No reflection responses are present.
D. Requirements
The following requirements must be met for your submission to be graded:
Double-space the bibliography entries and use one-inch margins.
Use a readable 12-point font.
All writing must be appropriate for an academic context.
Composition must be original and written for this assignment.
Plagiarism of any kind is strictly prohibited.
Submission must include your name, the name of the course, the date, and the title of your composition.
Submission must include your reflection questions.
Include all of the assignment components in a single file.
Acceptable file formats include .doc and .docx.
Your research question, thesis, and outline must be graded before your annotated bibliography will be accepted.
E. Additional Resources
The following resources will be helpful to you as you work on this assignment:
Purdue Online Writing Lab’s APA Formatting and Style Guide
This site includes a comprehensive overview of APA style, as well as individual pages with guidelines for specific citation types.
Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style
This page on the official APA website addresses common questions related to APA formatting. The “References,” “Punctuation,” and “Grammar and Writing Style” sections will be the most useful to your work in this course.
APA Style: Quick Answers—References
This page on the official APA Style website provides numerous examples of reference list formatting for various source types.