Once you have decided on a topic, the second task is to conduct scholarly research to learn more about your topic and to use as inspiration for your creative piece. The goal is to conduct enough research on your topic and medium to be able to develop a creative piece with clear intent and purpose. A notated bibliography, or organized notes, will help you organize your notes and keep track of your sources. This lesson will address ways to conduct research and produce a notated bibliography.
Lesson Objectives
- recognize the research criteria for the final project
- define notated bibliography
- identify scholarly sources
- conduct research using academic databases
- recognize different formats for citations
- produce an notated bibliography
Research Criteria
This project requires scholarly research to learn more about your topic and collect ideas that will influence the purpose and intent behind your creative piece. For example, if you are going to address ‘sadness from deforestation,’ it would be useful to explore how others have represented nature and/or environmental destruction in the humanities. If you plan to create a logo for an app that will help people find black-owned local businesses, then research will help you find relevant meanings behind specific symbols and colors in your app design as well as the name of your app. Feel free to branch out of the Humanities and grab from psychology, ecology, and cultural anthropology, or throw in some physics or math if it applies. The goal is to research symbols, techniques, influences and other useful tools that will assist you in developing the intent and purpose in your statement about your creative process and the work you produced.
The project requires at least five scholarly sources:
- At least one scholarly reference related to a person (artist, poet, musician, philosopher, architect, developer, etc.)
- At least one scholarly reference related to another piece of work (piece of art, a poem, a song, etc.), a genre (beat, dystopia, etc.), and/or a style/technique (watercolor, slam poetry, graffiti, etc.)
- At least one scholarly reference that provides social and/or historical context such as the background of a movement (religious, social, political, etc.), context of a problem (ie difficulties meeting people during COVID, or other relevant social or historical phenomena related to your creative work. .
- The two remaining scholarly references can be about anything that applies to your project.
- Format your references in any citation style.
In addition to a properly formatted bibliography, the project also requires in-text citations within the statement. An notated bibliography will help you organize your sources, keep track of your notes, and insert in-text citations. This is particularly important in an era when more and more students are using AI to write their papers. Your notated bibliography is evidence of the academic research you conducted prior to writing your paper. (The outline you will produce in the next lesson is evidence of your writing process.)
What is an notated bibliography?
An notated bibliography is an organized list of sources (like a reference list) with the notes from each source . It differs from a straightforward bibliography in that each reference is followed by notations, either paragraphs or bullets, taken from the source. You may have created an annotated bibliography in a previous class where you evaluated the source. For this class, you will use the notated bibliography to organize your notes; your notes will be the content you will use in your written statement. This will be particularly helpful to meet the requirement for in-text citations in the statement because it will help you keep track of where your information came from. Your notated bibliography can be in any citation style, but it must be consistent throughout your bibliography and your paper.
For more information, see the Purdue Owl guide on annotated bibliographies and watch the video below. (Yet remember, this activity if for a notated bibliography consisting of your organized notes.)
What is a scholarly resource?
Scholarly sources (also referred to as academic, peer-reviewed, or refereed sources) are written by experts in a particular field and serve to keep others interested in that field up to date on the most recent research, findings, and news. When a source has been peer-reviewed, it has undergone the review and scrutiny of a review board of experts in the author’s field. They evaluate this source as part of the body of research for a particular discipline and make recommendations regarding its publication in a journal, revisions prior to publication, or, in some cases, reject its publication. See: University of Illinois ‘Determine if a source is scholarly‘
You can include non-scholarly sources in your bibliography, but you must have at least five scholarly sources.
The following are NOT scholarly:
- Wikipedia
- magazine or news articles
- most websites
- blogs
- religious texts
It is important to note that an expression (poem, scripture, etc.) is not a scholarly source. You will need to find a scholarly source about the expression. For example, if you want to use symbols from Van Gogh’s Starry Night (1889) in your expression to represent struggles with depression, Starry Night is not a scholarly source. Yet, the peer-reviewed article, ‘The artist in the hospital: the Van Gogh case‘ which addresses Van Gogh’s depression in an asylum during the painting of Starry Night is a scholarly source. Similarly, if you want to draw from Christian scriptures and use a mustard seed to represent faith in your expression, Matthew 17:20 is not a scholarly source. Yet, the philosophical article, ‘Faith as a mustard seed,’ as well as a book, ‘The Gospel of Matthew,’ are scholarly sources that can help you develop a more sophisticated understand of and use for the meanings behind your symbols.
Locating Scholarly Resources:
There are a wide variety a databases providing access to scholarly sources. Some databases charge a fee, and Santa Fe College pays a licensing fee so you may access them. This makes it a good idea to conduct your research through the SF Library website and logging into the off-campus access page. Visit the resources below to get started:
- SF College Library Guide.
- SF Off-campus Database Access
- SF Library Guides
- Google Scholar
- SF Librarian Assistance
- Tyree Library Research Tools
Citation Formatting Resources
References in the bibliography need to be formatted, yet the referencing style (APA, MLA, etc.) does not matter in this course. It is a good idea to learn which style is used most often in your field of study, and use that style in your paper.
The following websites can assist in formatting the references.
For Discussion in Canvas
Create a Notated Bibliography of at least five scholarly sources used in your research. You can include non-scholarly sources, but the bibliography must have at least five scholarly sources. To receive credit, provide constructive criticism to at least two other students’ bibliographies with information on how to improve. Refer to the bibliography requirements in your feedback. You can also suggest sources as feedback.
- At least one scholarly reference related to a person (artist, poet, musician, philosopher, architect, developer, etc.)
- At least one scholarly reference related to another piece of work (piece of art, a poem, a song, etc.), a genre (beat, dystopia, etc.), and/or a style/technique (watercolor, slam poetry, graffiti, etc.)
- At least one scholarly reference that provides social and/or historical context such as the background of a movement (religious, social, political, etc.), context of a problem (ie difficulties meeting people during COVID, or other relevant social or historical phenomena related to your creative work. .
- The two remaining scholarly references can be about anything that applies to your project.
- Each source must be notated with notes that will be used in the written piece of this paper.
For the Creative Journal
Create a mash-up of symbolic representations from each reference in your bibliography. For example, if your bibliography includes references on a biography of Frida Kahlo, an analysis of the E.A. Poe’s ‘The Raven,’ and a book on the history of easter-egg painting – create an expression that merges all of them together. Use your right brain for this.