History 4990 Senior Seminar

Scholarly Literature Review

You will search the standard guides to scholarship (JSTOR, etc.) to find that which has already been written on your chosen topic. You will submit this literature as an annotated bibliography.

  1. There should be at least 6 annotated citations (in the final paper there should be 12 such sources) which refer your reader to a mix of scholarly information sources (books, journals, video, web sites, etc.) The citation must be in the format proper for the source as specified in the Turabian (Chicago Style Manual) style manual.
  2. The annotation must be evaluative of the source's authority as well as descriptive of the source's content. These should indicate these sources as the best (most informative, useful, scholarly) sources you were able to find on this topic.

For an activity to be designated as scholarship, it should manifest at least three key characteristics:

We thus observe with respect to all forms of scholarship that they are acts of mind or spirit that have been made public in some manner, have been subjected to peer review by members of one's intellectual or professional community, and can be cited, refuted, built-upon, and shared among members of that community.
(http://www.bothell.washington.edu/library/guides/sources.html)

Scholarly Source
Non-Scholarly Source
   
Articles or books are written by a scholar or a professional in the field. May be written by a professional writer who is not an expert in the field.
Always cite their sources of information in the form of footnotes or bibliography. Rarely offers information (footnotes or bibliography) about the sources of information.
Text gives research results, includes specialized vocabulary and is aimed at a scholarly audience. Text reports events or opinions and is aimed at a general audience (easy to read).
Journal cover and pages tend to be plain in design, with few or no pictures or graphics. Tend to be highly pictorial. Magazines accept advertising.
Most are published by professional organizations, associations, scholarly groups or universities and colleges. Are generally published for profit.  May be intended as a vehicle of opinion: political, moral, or ethnic.
Authors are always named, and their institutional affiliation is given. Authors may be anonymous.
Journal issues are likely to be successively numbered (for example, issue 1 includes pages 1-356, issue 2 has pages 357-585, etc.) Magazine issues are likely to begin with page 1.
Articles may be long. Articles may be short, some only 1-2 pages.
Journal issues tend to be published less often (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually). Magazine issues tend to be published more frequently (monthly, weekly, daily).
Journals would usually be found in a library or in a professor's office. Magazines can be found at any bookstore or convenience store.
Examples: Articles in Journal of American History, Journal of Educational Psychology or books published by a University Press written by a scholar with footnotes. Examples:  Articles in Newsweek, National Review or books published by Scribner written by a journalist or professional writer without footnotes.

(http://www.stchas.edu/library/scholar.shtml)