Reflecting back on Annotated Bibliography

 Phew. After having a week break from classes, it is time to reflect on the process of doing the annotated bibliography assignment. First and foremost, this assignment was really challenging and different from any other assignments. Instead of writing 1000 words essay in Microsoft Word document, this assignment was split into 10 different BLOG ENTRIES.

The whole process of writing the annotated bibliography and publishing on the blog for people to see bothered me. In this higher tertiary education, the word ‘plagiarism’ has always been emphasized. So having to publish our annotated bibliography assignment in public for other student to see, there is definitely a tendency to copy another student’s idea. Lucky for me, I didn’t have internet at home. I was using a prepaid USB modem which has very limited data for me to use so I only use it to go online to publish my annotated bibliography entries.

Besides that, it feels weird writing in an informal way for a marked assessment. I’m so used to writing in a formal academic style that when I started writing the annotated bibliography entries, it was hard for me to determine the writing style because writing blog entries are supposed to be spontaneous, relaxed and easy to be read.  I know the marking criteria allows us to write in different style, but then, like I said it just feels weird. So I approached my annotated entries by keeping it simple and straight to the point. It’s really different because in a traditional essay, I could write up to 10-15 lines of words in a paragraph but when I write it for a blog entry, my eyes just blurred and I don’t even want to read it.

Reading on a screen and a printed copy is totally different. For me, I always tend to scroll through long paragraph of words, I can’t concentrate long passages. I think most people have the same issue as well. Hence, I try to keep in mind that Seth would be reading about 100 over blog entries so I make sure that my ideas are neatly organized in each paragraph. I think producing the annotated bibliography was a good start to divert away from the traditional essay as this course is all about writing in space.

Note to self: Annotated Bibliography

What is this about?

• Individual assessment
• Worth 20%
• Choose 1/3 extracts provided
• Min 1000 words and 10 blog entries

FINAL 10th blog entry MUST have!

• Summary of research.
• Links to the other 9 blog entries.
• Bibliography (at least 3 academic references – may include reading extract is taken from).

Submission

• Week 6 – August 26 2011, Friday, 5pm
• Email Seth (seth.keen@rmit.edu.au) with subject line NM-2011 Annotated Bibliography (student name)
• Include URL web address of FINAL 10th blog entry.