Process Narrative: Annotated Bibliography

Method: The Rhetorical Précis

Naomi’s annotated bibliography assignment requires that she write two paragraphs for each of her eight sources: one summary paragraph and one evaluation paragraph. For the summary paragraph, her teacher recommended a specific type of summary, called a rhetorical précis.

The first sentence of the précis should provide the basic information about the source and clearly state the thesis, or main claim, of the source using a rhetorically active verb.

Naomi remembered highlighting what she thought was the “thesis statement” for the article in its abstract:

Screenshot of an annotated article. The following sentence is highlighted as the thesis statement: Relatively strong evidence from cross-sectional research supports the association of shared family meals with favorable dietary patterns in children and adolescents, including consumption of fruits, vegetables, and healthful nutrients.

She wanted to clearly express that this article was important primarily because it surveyed a broad scope of research studies and identified important gaps in scholarship. She settled on the verb “claim” for her first sentence.

Rhetorical Précis: Getting Started

Karen Glanz et al (2021), in their article “Diet and Health Benefits Associated with In-Home Eating and Sharing Meals at Home: A Systematic Review,” claim that the majority of empirical research supports the idea that shared, in-home eating experiences have a positive effect on childhood and adolescent diets, but that more research is needed is necessary to study the causal relationship between shared eating, diet, physical health, emotional health, and family dynamics.

Method: The Evaluation Paragraph

The second paragraph Naomi’s assignment requires for each annotation is an “Evaluation” paragraph. In this paragraph, she is supposed to assess how it contributes to the academic field or discipline on her topic and describe how it will contribute to her project. The purpose of this paragraph is essentially an extension of the WHY sentence in the rhetorical précis, as it is part analysis, part reflection. In some ways, the evaluation paragraph is more important than the summary paragraph, as it can describe specifically why the source was chosen and how it can be used in a larger project. Many students find that they are able to rework parts of their annotated bibliography’s evaluation paragraphs to include in later parts of the research project.

Naomi was still working with the source she wrote the précis paragraph for (“Diet and Health Benefits Associated with In-Home Eating and Sharing Meals at Home: A Systematic Review”). She decided it made more sense to her to work out the Analysis and Reflection components separately before she tried to write the evaluation paragraph, at least for her first source.

Analysis Workshop

A careful source analysis can be broken up into guided questions about intended audience, reasoning, coverage, and writing style.

Analysis Workshop

Analyzing Audience
What type of audience is the author addressing?	Researchers and other academics studying public health and dietetics (based on the bibliography). International audience (based on the title of the journal
Is the publication aimed at a specialized or a general audience?	Specialized, technical terminology and statistics, exhaustive internal citation of other specialized sources, author biographies.
Is this source too elementary, too technical, too advanced, or just right for your needs?	This source is appropriate for my research project because it provides a broad overview of different individual studies that relate to my research question.

Analyzing Reasoning
Is the information covered fact, opinion, or propaganda?	Argument based on facts
Does the information appear to be valid and well-researched, or is it questionable and unsupported by evidence?	Well researched and supported by evidence
Are the ideas and arguments advanced more or less in line with other works you have read on the same topic?	Not sure yet
Is the author’s point of view objective and impartial? Is the language free of emotion-arousing words and bias?	Yes, the style is very dry if anything

Analyzing Coverage
Does the work update other sources, substantiate other materials you have read, or add new information?	Not sure yet
Does it extensively or marginally cover your topic?	Seems pretty extensive, since it’s trying to be “A Systematic Review”
Is the material primary or secondary in nature?	Secondary (it’s a literature review, not primary research)

Analyzing Writing Style
Is the publication organized logically?	Yes, IMRAD format
Are the main points clearly presented?	Yes
Do you find the text easy to read, or is it stilted or choppy?	Not too hard, but not conversational either

Reflection Workshop

Reflection on the usefulness of a source is a very personal process. In some cases, a careful analysis will pull out everything you need to use for your annotation. However, there are still some guided questions you can ask yourself to help see connections between a source and your research project. Naomi wanted her evaluation paragraphs to be thorough, so she decided to continue taking notes.

Reflection Workshop

How does the source specifically address my research question?	Summarizes other articles’ findings about the relationship between shared family meals and health outcomes
How did the source change my thinking about the project?	The article confirms the “common sense” idea that family meals are good for the health and wellness of children, but also shows some gaps that in the scholarship
Which parts of the source have the most relevance to my project?	All of it?
How does the source relate to my other sources?	Shows overall patterns and commonalities, as well as identifying research gaps.

Contextualizing Sources

The last part of Naomi’s annotated bibliography assignment was a 300-word introduction to the bibliography highlighting the main ideas, trends, and divergences that she noticed in her sources. Her teacher explained that the main purpose of this introduction was to start writing about connections and conflicts among research sources in order to start learning about synthesis. Since two of her sources were literature reviews, Naomi already had some understanding of what synthesis was all about. The introduction to an annotated bibliography isn’t the same as a literature review, but there are certain similarities.

An introduction to an annotated bibliography should be more than just a summary. Since the annotations themselves have summary paragraphs, this would end up being a summary of summaries.

Method: Scope Out the Annotated Bibliography

From just reading the introduction to the annotated bibliography, the reader should know what the focus of the included sources is as well as the kinds of sources included and excluded and why. When writing about scope in the introduction, make sure to go beyond the obvious.

For scope, you should not just write that the annotated bibliography consists of citations and annotations for academic and/or professional journal articles and excludes any other materials. Instead, for example, you may want to address the inclusion of older sources in your paper, the omission of international research, etc. Basically, tell the reader information about the sources that will really help him/her to understand what the content that follows includes and why. This does not mean that you should explain the inclusion of each individual source; instead, write broadly about the kinds of sources included and excluded, though if there is a particular source or sources you think you need to explain your reasoning for including and/or excluding, then feel free to identify it/them by title/author and explain. Just think of scope as essentially the criteria you used to select which sources would appear in the annotated bibliography and which would not.

Template for the Introduction to the Annotated Bibliography

Noami used a template to plan out the introduction to her annotated bibliography.

Purpose:

Inform the reader of your topic/focus of the research and engage him/her (prompt him/her to want to read further)
Familiarize your reader with major ideas in the research on the topic
Identify the purpose of the paper as an annotated bibliography focusing on sources published in the field on the topic

Topic and Focus	The perceived benefit of family meals is “common sense,” but what does the research say? Research comes from public health, nutrition and dietetics, and medicine. Does the research actually support personal anecdotes and experience?
Major Ideas	There are social, psychological, and nutritional outcomes associated with family meals, but most research doesn’t attempt to trace all of them. The definitions of “family meal” or “shared meal” are sometimes inconsistent or unclear. Most individual studies fail to establish a clear causal relationship between family meals and health outcomes.
Purpose	Contextualize future “big picture” research on the topic. Help me nail down exactly what I’m trying to write about Write content and citations that I can re-use in future parts of the project.

Structure:

Start with broad background/context regarding topic.
Establish that research has been done on the topic and identify the major differing arguments/beliefs on the topic or the problem that warrants research.
End with a one-sentence thesis that states the purpose of the paper (you can extend this to specify the annotated bibliography includes citations, summaries, and evaluations of sources)

Background/Context	Annotated Bibliography: The Influence of Family Meals on Childhood Eating Habits The idea that children benefit from regular, shared “family meals” seems like common sense. Most people would agree that it makes sense that children who regularly eat with their families make better nutritional choices than those who don’t based purely on experience and personal anecdotes. However, I wanted to see if scholarly research actually supports this common belief. I gathered six sources from the fields of public health, nutrition and dietetics, and pediatric medicine that address different aspects of this topic. Ultimately, my research shows that eating together as a family has both physical and psychological benefits and that a child’s family and family behaviors surrounding meals has a clear influence on health and eating habits later in life. However, most of the studies I found have various limitations and do not support a “big picture” conclusion about what makes family meals beneficial.
Main Ideas	common belief. I gathered six sources from the fields of public health, nutrition and dietetics, and pediatric medicine that address different aspects of this topic. Ultimately, my research shows that eating together as a family has both physical and psychological benefits and that a child’s family and family behaviors surrounding meals has a clear influence on health and eating habits later in life. However, most of the studies I found have various limitations and do not support a “big picture” conclusion about what makes family meals beneficial. Two of my sources (Daniels 2019; Glanz et al 2021) are review articles that synthesize the findings of other studies. These sources helped me specifically define what I mean by “family meals” and gave me a good understanding of the range of studies conducted in this area. While some of my sources study the nutritional benefits of shared meals in isolation, most of them acknowledge that social and psychological factors are just as important when looking at the overall effects of family meals on children. The major challenge in terms of study design seems to be controlling for factors external to the “family meal” itself that could have a
Thesis	the overall effects of family meals on children. The major challenge in terms of study design seems to be controlling for factors external to the “family meal” itself that could have a significant impact on their value. Based on my research so far, I think more work should be done to connect quantitative and qualitative studies and more disciplinary collaboration among social workers, nutritionists, and physicians who are interested in this topic. This annotated bibliography contains citations, summaries, and evaluations of six scholarly sources related to the influence of family meals on children’s nutrition and health.

The Annotated Bibliography

Read the final draft of Noami’s annotated bibliography.

Resources: The Research Paper: Integrating Research