A research diary is a log of the steps and thought processes researchers go through as they conduct their research.  A research diary gives students the opportunity to reflect on the research process as they discover more information about a topic. 

Students are asked to reflect on their experience writing a required “literature review” for the course through a first-person “comic.” The visual narrative format allows students to come to terms with their own experience of what was hard, easy, or confusing about the literature review process and express it in a creative way.

This assignment asks students to compare the dramatization of a historical event to the historical writing about the same event.

What is it?

An annotation is a brief evaluative summary of a book, article, or other publication. A bibliography is a list of resources cited in a consistent style format (such as MLA). An annotated bibliography, then, is a list of cited sources with brief explanations centering around one topic or research question. The purpose is to help the reader of the bibliography understand the uses of each source and the relationships of one source to another.

Your Assignment:

The primary purpose of a literature review is to provide a rationale for your proposed research question(s). You need to locate your research question within the broader conversation of a particular discipline. A review of literature should present a synthesis of existing theory and research literature that argues for the usefulness of the research question.