5SOCIOLOGY 220
American Popular Culture
Annotated Bibliography (100 points):
Due no later than 11:55p on Saturday of Week 8
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is for students to
1) identify and learn about a subtopic in Am. Popular Culture that is of interest to them;
2) become familiar with the online library resources; and
3) to develop some information literacy skills.
Students will be developing an Annotated Bibliography Table based on a subtopic in American
Popular culture that is of interest to them. A minimum of 3 peer-reviewed sources and 4 popular
and/or open-web sources will need to be used in the bibliography.
The completed assignment will include:
1) Identify subtopic in American Popular Culture that you chose to investigate for this
assignment. (e.g. sport and popular culture)
2) List search terms you used in your searches (i.e. sport, sociology, "popular culture")
3) A Table with 7 annotated entries
a) Annotated entries in table for a minimum of 3 peer-reviewed articles (see below for
what should be included in each entry)
b) Annotated entries in table for a minimum of 4 popular and/or open-web sources
Each source entry should be in a table format (see full guidelines under Homework
Assignments folder) and include the following:
1) Title of the source
2) APA-formatted full reference for the source
3) Evaluation of where the source came from – i.e. peer-reviewed journal, blog, website, etc.
4) Brief discussion of how the source is relevant to your subtopic of interest and why you chose
it.
5) Brief description of the source research question, findings, key information, etc.
6) Evaluation of strengths of source in addressing your subtopic of interest (note: if it is not
helpful at all, it is not a good source and should not be included)
7) Evaluation weaknesses regarding how helpful the source was in addressing your subtopic of
interest.
8) Comparative analysis – compare/contrast how this source addresses your subtopic of interest
in comparison to another source (note: no source should be used in this section more than twice)
This could be based on type of methodology used, size of sample, hypothesis, findings, how
variables are measured, etc. If you analyze Source 1 in comparison to Source 2, then your
Source 2 analysis should be compared to a source other than Source 1. Keep in mind all analysis
should relate back to your research question.
Table Format that must be used:
Source 1
Source 2
Etc.
1) Source Title
2) APA-formatted
citation for source
3) Source Evaluation
4) Relevance of source to
Subtopic
5) 3-5 sentence
description of source
6) Strengths
7) Weaknesses
8) Analysis of 2+ sources
(compare/contrast)
Grading Rubric: This assignment will be graded based on completion of all of the
requirements.
Points per Source
List Subtopic
List Search Terms
1) Source Title
2) APA-formatted
citation for source
3) Source Evaluation
4) Relevance of source to
Subtopic
5) 3-5 sentence
description of source
6) Strengths
7) Weaknesses
8) Analysis of 2+ sources
(compare/contrast)
Total Points Possible
1
1.5
Total Points Per
Element
1
1
7
10.5
1
1.5
7
10.5
3
21
1.5
1.5
3
10.5
10.5
21
100
