Working Bibliography

By class time on Thursday, 2/9, you should have posted to your blog a working bibliography for your senior project. This bibliography must include no fewer than 50 appropriate references and be composed of at least 20 journal, Web, or other scholarly sources other than books.

This is a “working bibliography.” It will change and develop over time as you continue your research. Some sources may drop out as you realize they lack relevance, while other sources or even whole new categories of sources may be added. Your “working bibliography” should reflect a broad and deep search into reference materials relevant to your topic and to the context(s) within which your topic lies. The title of your bibliography should include the topic of your senior project (e.g. “Social Change Through Music: The Case of Appalachia,” or, “Postcolonial Interpretations of Medieval Women Mystics,” or Photojournalism in Practice: Trailer Communities in Transition in Boone”). Your bibliography should then list EVERY source relevant to your topic: theoretically, technically, historically, topically, thematically, and so forth.

This bibliography should show that you have conducted research into a variety of disciplines (and other reservoirs of knowledge) including sources of both data (information) and theory (ways of interpreting the data). It will include books and articles, and may also include videos, films, musical recordings, live events, workshops and seminars, interviews or other experiences with individuals and groups, and other sources. Make sure you include sources critical of and making critiques of different theses/positions, including your own. All sources will be listed alphabetically and in MLA format (so I can read and understand them). This rather large compendium of relevant sources will provide you the challenge and opportunity of defining and justifying the criteria by which you will select materials you will actually consult as you move forward and which will appear in the “Works Cited” section of your final project. NB: Literature research involves examination of published books, journal articles, government documents and reports, and web sites. Since web sites have information of variable quality, you need to do more work to insure the reliability of these sources.

To summarize, your bibliography:

Should be as complete and exhaustive as possible. It should contain ALL books, journals, articles, and other library resources that are relevant to your particular project, no fewer than 50, with at least 20 from non-book sources.

It should contain not only sources available at Belk Library, but elsewhere as well.

It should be in MLA format (Modern Language Association). There are copies of this guide available at the reserve desk in the library. A quick reference guide to MLA format can also be found at: http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/mlagd.html