Research and the Annotated Bibliography

I wanted to write a brief blog to explain a bit more the kind of research you should be doing for your paper and how to write the annotated bibliography.

In your final Analytical Research Paper you will be making an argument that is specific to your primary source – whatever music video you have chosen to analyze. You want to thing about broader concepts but you will be thinking about how these play out within the context of your video. For example, if you were writing about “Love. Sex. Magic” by Ciara featuring Justin Timberlake you might consider how Ciara is presented as a sexual object performing for Timerlake and how this is related to her position as a black woman. You could definitely look for articles that talk about representations of black women in movies or music, but your final argument will be about the video specifically and what messages it presents about these issues. So, while you are looking for sources that make arguments in larger concepts, you will be considering how these arguments can be put into conversation with your unique analysis of the video you have chosen. In Writing Analytically, the authors talk about how you can use someone else’s writing as part of a reading practice or approach to a text (p. 117-119). You will probably not find peer-review articles or book chapters on your music video, unless you have chosen something that is a bit less recent, but you can find secondary sources that are related and can be used to complicate, contest or add to your unique reading of the video.

When you are writing your annotated bibliography, please be sure and read the directions closely so that you are not leaving something out. Your annotations are intended to show why the source is credible, how it will help your argument, and how you could/will position it within your paper.

Here’s an example:

Hooks, Bell. “Selling Hot Pussy: Representations of Black Female Sexuality in the Cultural Marketplace.” Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992. 61-77. Print.

This chapter comes from a well-respected book about African Americans in representation written by a professor that has written several books about feminist theory, race and popular culture. A reader can establish the credibility of this source by looking at the multiple references to other well-known theorists. Hooks also uses personal experiences and examples from popular culture which will be helpful in talking about the “Love. Sex. Magic” video. Hooks argues that Black women are represented in popular culture as pornographic sexual animals. Her discussion of how Tina Turner uses these stereotypes for economic gain would support my argument that Ciara is presenting herself as a sexual animal, especially when she wears the animal print body suits, in a way that links racist stereotypes with idea of what is “sexy.”