===GuideLines====

—Writing assignments should follow APA style of documentation.

Topic and Report Requirements:

The News Report asked you to think like a journalist or a consumer of the news. Now, the Research Component asks you to think like a Women’s Studies’ scholar: How does the information reported in the news article connect to scholarly research in the field? What do scholars already know that can deepen our understanding of the information reported in the article?

This assignment will also provide an orientation to the interdisciplinary scholarly resources available for Women’s Studies’ students and scholars.

First (1), visit the Research Guide for Women’s Studies at the UMGC Library. Spend some time exploring the available resources.

To access the Research Guide for Women’s Studies

• Click on “Resources” > “Library” from inside the LEO Classroom
• Click on “Research Guides” in the tabs above the search box on the library search page
• Click on “Select a Guide” and scroll down to “Research Guide for Women’s Studies”

Second (2), using any of the databases or eresources available in the Research Guide, research some aspect of your news article. You could focus on the main topic of the article (such as the gender wage gap, or women in the military), on a specific person discussed in the article (such as an activist, or a politician), or on a location discussed in the article (such as women in the Midwest, or women in Nigeria), or on a related idea (such as the history of cosmetics, or female-centered religions). Remember to maintain a focus on a topic of interest to Women’s Studies.

Third (3), choose two of the scholarly resources you discover, and write an annotated bibliography of 500-700 words as described here. Chosen resources should be no more than 10 years old.

• If you are unsure how to determine if a given resource is “scholarly” or not, here is a guide to evaluating resources: https://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/articles.cfm
• If you need help formatting an Annotated Bibliography, here are two good resources:
  • How to Write an Annotated Bibliography at the UMGC Library [note that this assignment asks you to include both types of annotations described here for each entry]
  • Annotated Bibliography Samples at the Purdue OWL

Your annotated bibliography should include:

1. An introduction: Explain which topic you chose to explore and why, and how you used the Research Guide to find scholarly work on that topic. Remember to explicitly state the connection to the news article you chose for the News Report.
2. Two annotated bibliographic references. Each of these should include:
   • The full citation properly cited in APA Style. Note that different types of publications (journal articles, encyclopedia entries, ebooks) will require different citation styles.
   • A 1-paragraph summary of the findings of the research. You should actually read both resources you present. This summary should be in your own words. Do not copy from the summary or abstract that appears in the online library reference listing.
   • A 1-2 paragraph evaluation of the resource. How does the news article confirm, complicate, illustrate, or otherwise relate to the news article? How does it deepen your understanding of the same subject as covered in the news article?

Writing Guidelines:

The Research Component of the News Report should demonstrate that you

• can identify key subjects in a news article of interest to Women’s Studies scholars.
• can locate and understand scholarly resources.
• can write an organized, clear, detailed, and properly cited annotated bibliography.

Here are some links to resources which cover the APA format:

• APA Style

If you quote, paraphrase, or summarize your news article, or any other sources in addition to the two listed in your annotated bibliography, remember to cite them both in the text and in a References list at the end of the assignment.

There is a sample News Report Research Component paper attached to this assignment in Assignments. It is not a perfect paper, but it is formatted correctly and contains all the required elements. This sample is for informational use only. Your paper should be entirely your original work, even if on the same or a similar topic.

Scoring Rubric:

Each paper is worth up to 100 points as follows: