More Textbook Reading

For this week, we were assigned to do read chapters six and seven in our textbook. Chapter six is titled, "reading resources rhetorically," and explores the context of a resource, summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting from resources, and annotating while you read. The part I was most interested in and focused on the most was the part of the reading that had to do with annotating resources. This is because I have never done an annotated bibliography before and I have heard it is an enormous pain in the ass. A major tip the author gave was on page 117 and stated that when annotating for a large research paper, you should spend time looking at the source's claim, reasons, and evidence. The claim is defined as: the overall point that the resource is making/its thesis. Evidence is also very important because it provides a backbone for the resource's claims. If there is no evidence, then there isn't a legitimate claim. Another thing in chapter six i thought was good information was the reminder that when writing a summary, you aren't including all the details, just enough information for easy comparison with other resources.

Chapter seven was about tracking and evaluating data, which includes filling any gaps in research to build a strong argument and keeping track of the resources you've found. The most critical information in this chapter is about filling in the gaps in research and can be found starting on page 135. The biggest tip is to not wait until the end to verify, copy, and respond to your sources. Copying everything as you go ensures that you won't lose the information or its importance to your research paper/project. After getting many sources, pick the two strongest and check the book, website, etc to see if they provide a bibliography or other sources.