Main issues in relation to the Annotated Bibliographies

Main issues in relation to the Annotated Bibliographies
注释性参考书目需要注意的一些主要问题

Topic
Guidelines: You are free to choose your own topic but you should make sure that it is sufficiently focused.

The topic had to be related to translation or interpreting, but basically anything went, as long as it was:
- not too ambitious
- specific enough.

e.g. do not compare the translation of advertising with the translation of humour and subtitling
e.g. do not look at AVT generally but rather focus on subtitling or dubbing.

Articles
The articles had to be clearly related to the stated topic. 

They were ideally to be chosen from a range of sources i.e. academic journals and/or edited volumes.  The journals should have been translation / interpreting / linguistics journals, the books edited / refereed volumes.  Beware of online sources since often there is no guarantee of quality – look for refereed online publications. 

Books were not acceptable.  Choosing three articles from the same edition of the same journal was not really acceptable, unless there were special reasons for this which were clearly explained. 

Publications should have been relatively recent.  If any ‘old’ articles were included, then this needed to be justified (e.g. in the case of a seminal article).

When using online sources, always give the last date on which the source was accessed.

The articles should have been ordered alphabetically by author. 

Introduction
Guidelines: Your annotated bibliography should begin with a short Introduction to your topic and the specific aspect of it that you wish to study so that the reader of your bibliography (someone new to the field) understands the context. You should support your claims in the introduction by referring to the sources. If you refer to sources in the introduction not listed in the main bibliography, you should also include a list of references with full details (or footnotes).
It is important to have a focused and clearly specified purpose to which all the sources relate.

The introduction provides the context for the articles.  It had to present the topic, justify its choice, ideally say something about the intended audience of the bibliography, present the main aspects of the topic to be addressed (i.e. specific issues for consideration) and introduce the articles to be annotated.

The introduction really needs to refer to secondary sources as a means of introducing the topic and providing the relevant context for the articles, in order to avoid unsubstantiated claims / value judgements, and, importantly, to provide definitions of key concepts e.g. ‘equivalence’ etc. 

Referencing
Surprisingly, this was the area in which many otherwise good bibliographies fell down.  Please use the Harvard method of referencing i.e. author + date + page. #p#分页标题#e#

In many cases bibliographical data was missing e.g. page numbers, journal titles, etc.  Some information was included which is not required e.g. publisher data for journals.    When quoting, always give page numbers.    Check conventions in the secondary sources from the T&I Studies booklist.
 

Annotations

Guidelines: Annotations are descriptive and critical; their purpose is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources referred to. In addition they might examine the author's point of view and authority. An annotation attempts to give enough information to help a reader decide whether the source will be relevant and reliable.
Provide a short comment (around 150 words) after each one to describe and critique the sources. You can use the following checklist as a guide for your critique:
level & audience is this designed for new researchers or does it require specialized    knowledge?
scope   is the source an introduction or overview or a more detailed study?
purpose what has the writer set out to achieve? Particularly for Internet sources is he/she trying to sell his/her opinions?
currency is the material up to date? Is it recent enough for your topic?
usefulness is this a helpful introduction or a good piece of research (according to other authors who have commented on the work)?
reliability particularly for the Internet resources, is the quality of the article good?
bias  can you detect any bias towards one particular viewpoint?
author(s) is the author well-known and an active researcher in the field?
comparison how does the work relate to others in your bibliography?

The annotations had to be detailed (as far as is possible given the word limit of the task), not superficial and show understanding of the topic and the articles themselves. 

Furthermore, they needed to do the following:Custom Thesis，Custom Dissertation，请联系QQ：949925041
- discuss what the articles cover / what they do not cover
- discuss what the articles actually say in relation to the topic
- provide a critical evaluation of the article: point out any gaps in the content of the article, evaluate the significance and the usefulness of the article, especially to the target audience.

List of references
A list of secondary references was required at the end including all those references cited in the introduction and in the various annotations. 
 
Annotated Bibliographies

Topic
The topic had to be related to translation or interpreting, but basically anything went, as long as it was:
- not too ambitious
- sufficiently focused#p#分页标题#e#

e.g. do not compare the translation of advertising with the translation of humour and subtitling
e.g. do not look at AVT generally but rather focus on subtitling or dubbing.

Articles
The articles should have been:
- clearly related to the stated topic 
- chosen from a range of sources i.e. academic journals and/or edited volumes
- relatively recent
- ordered alphabetically by author. 

 
Introduction
The introduction provides the context for the articles.  It had to present the topic, justify its choice, ideally say something about the intended audience of the bibliography, present the main aspects of the topic to be addressed (i.e. specific issues for consideration) and introduce the articles to be annotated.

Secondary sources should have been used here e.g. to provide the relevant context for the articles, to support claims made, and for the purpose of definitions of key concepts e.g. ‘equivalence’ etc. 

Referencing
The standard system of referencing in T&I Studies is the Harvard method of referencing i.e. author + date + page. 

Examples
 

 
Annotations

The annotations had to be detailed (as far as is possible given the word limit of the task), not superficial and show understanding of the topic and the articles themselves. 

They needed to do the following:
- discuss what the articles cover / what they do not cover
- discuss what the articles actually say in relation to the topic
- provide a critical evaluation of the article: point out any gaps in the content of the article, evaluate the significance and the usefulness of the article, especially to the target audience.

List of references
A list of secondary references was required at the end including all those references cited in the introduction and in the various annotations. 
 
According to Jacobs (1999a), a large portion of work in this area has tended to deal with internal, rather than external, company communications: “... until recently, the focus was on communication-within-organisations”, while the “capacity to communicate as an organisation… was strangely ignored” (Jacobs, 1999a: 3-4).  Furthermore, whether in an internal or external context, the focus has often been different types of correspondence – letters, faxes, emails etc. – which have been studied in particular in relation to interpersonal dynamics and factors of politeness, such as power and social distance (e.g. Akar and Louhiala-Salminen, 1999; Bargiela-Chiappini and Harris, 1996; Kessapidu, 1997; Limaye and Cherry, 1987; Mulholland, 1999; Pilegaard, 1997; Yli-Jokipii, 1994, 1996).   Custom Thesis#p#分页标题#e#，Custom Dissertation，请联系QQ：949925041

 
Jacobs, G. (1998) “Projected discourse: Analysis of receiver roles in press releases”.  Text 18 (4), 505-523.
Jacobs, G.  (1999a) Preformulating the News. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 
Jacobs, G.  (1999b) “Self-reference in press releases”.  Journal of Pragmatics 31, 219-242.
Mulholland, J. (1999)  “E-mail: Uses, issues and problems in an institutional setting”.  In Bargiela-Chiappini, F. and Nickerson, C. (eds.), Writing Business: Genres, Media and Discourses, London: Longman, pp.57-84.