J. Pablo Silva Spring Semester 2023
Final Version Due Friday, May 12.
Your final assignment for this class will be to write an 8-10 page annotated bibliography on a topic related to our course materials.
An annotated bibliography is a focused list of sources, with descriptive or evaluative notes about each source. In this case, you will be putting together a coherent set of primary and secondary sources on the topic that interests you about the European conquest of the Americas (preferably Spanish conquests, but see me if you really want to do a different aspect of European conquest and colonization in the Americas). In addition, you will be writing evaluative notes, or annotations, for each source you list.
Your bibliography will essentially serve as a research guide to someone interested in your topic. You can choose any topic related to our course materials, but it is important to think carefully about the focus of your topic. If you choose something too big, you will find too many sources, and vice versa. Some good topics might include: “The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico,” “Crown Regulation of the Encomienda System,” “The Evolution of Military Strategy in the Conquest,” or “Spanish Explorers in the Mississippi Basin.” But there are lots of possible topics. The most important requirement for this assignment is that there should be a scholarly debate related to your topic and your bibliography should present this debate clearly.
You will use research techniques to choose a coherent set of primary and secondary sources. Aim for at least eight (8) secondary sources. Then you will evaluate each source, and present it in proper Turabian bibliographic form. For this assignment, you will write evaluative annotations, which explain to the reader how and why each source is useful for your topic and how they contribute to the debate you have identified. The idea is to give your reader a sense of the historical sources and scholarly debate on your topic. So before you actually write your evaluative notes, you will need to actually understand the debate on your topic.
Here is a sample entry:
Brooks, Francis. “Motecuzoma Xocoyotl, Hernán Córtes, and Bernal Díaz del Castillo: The Construction of an Arrest,” Hispanic American Historical Review 75(1995): 149-183.
This article takes the side of scholars like Restall and Lockhart listed elsewhere in this bibliography who are skeptical of Cortés' supposed strategic inventiveness. After carefully reviewing Cortés' account, Brooks casts doubt on the letter as an accurate narrative of the arrest of Montezuma. Brooks also demonstrates that Bernal Díaz' relación should not be seen as a separate, independent source that serves to corroborate Cortés' version of events. Instead, Brooks argues ... By presenting this argument, this article offers a strong argument against the sources cited in this bibliography that were written by Prescott, Thomas, and Todorov, because it convincingly makes the case that ...
Recognize that to write a useful evaluative note on a source you must first have a sense of how the other pieces of your bibliography fit in with one another and you must have a clear vision of the overall debate on your topic. That means you need to choose a topic that has a debate.
Use Turabian Style to format your bibliographic entries. For a guide, see the first document listed in the documents tab on pioneerweb. Your bibliography should contain two separate labeled sections, one for primary sources, and one for secondary sources. Your annotated bibliography should also begin with a title and a three-to-four paragraph explanation of the debate on your topic and the focus of your research; these paragraphs introduce your resources.
Note: It is important to focus your annotated bibliography on scholarly resources. You will want to include books, journal articles, and perhaps web-sites. You will, perhaps, also want to include primary sources (or collections of primary sources) that are available in on-line databases. You will need to evaluate all of these sources to be sure they are proper for scholarly work. You will need to spend time browsing databases, the library catalogue, and perhaps the catalogs of other academic libraries. It may be a good idea to schedule a one-on-one library lab appointment early. That is done by filling out this form. In order to write evaluative notes, you will also need to read and understand your sources and to think about what they contribute to the scholarly debate surrounding your field of interest.
Important Deadlines:
Friday, April 14: Book report (or article report) on a source that seems very important to your topic
Monday, April 24: Rough draft of the annotated bibliography so I can provide you with comments
Tuesday, May 12: Final draft of the annotated bibliography
Your bibliography should be formatted as follows:
1. The first sheet should be a cover sheet or title page. This title page
should provide your project title one third of the way down the page and
centered. In the lower right, please list your name, your campus mailbox number, the name of the class, and the
date.
2. On the first few pages, give me a three-to-five paragraph explanation of the topic, the debate you have identified, and the focus of your research; these paragraphs introduce your resources.
3. On the subsequent pages, give me two separate sections, one of primary sources and one for secondary sources. For each item you should include five to eight sentences that (a) describe the source, (b) summarize the content, and (c) explain how it fits in to the debate you have identified.