Annotated Bibliography= complete. Now let’s reflect on it.

So over the course of the past week, I composed my first, very own, annotated bibliography. Thank you, thank you, you are too kind.

Thank you is all I can say

After spending a significant amount of time rewording phrases and words to search within the database, summarizing my 9 articles, and composing a short reflection paper on the groupings of my findings, my annotated bibliography was finally ready for submission.

Originally when I began to write the annotations of this bibliography, all I did was summarize my pieces. I wrote these elaborate one or two paragraph summaries for each of my articles to recap the main points, and it turns out that is not what I was supposed to do at all…

When you find out you wrote assignment wrong

After our session on peer review and looking back at the directions, it turns out I was actually supposed to be analyzing the connections and similarities or differences I came across as I attempted to understand my articles, and that is what I should have been focusing on. Obviously, I would have to understand what the article was conveying, so summarization was a good start, but ultimately it was about the synthesis that could be taken away from reading these articles that was most important.

Obviously it was frustrating to have to rewrite 9 annotations, I mean that’s a lot right? But in end, I realized it helped me understand my sources better than when I had originally read them the first time. By going back and looking at my articles with a mentality of attempting to find comparisons, helped me to better understand the conversations that the articles were addressing. When I was forced to go back and read some of the articles, I found that all of my pieces may have been roughly around the same topic of college dining and the potential it has, but each source referenced a specific conversation and concern. It was fascinating to see how sources that all seem so similar on the outside, can truly have some many differences once read.

Me when I found my argument

The silver lining throughout this process, is that I was able to find my own argument, and conversation I wanted to bring to the table out of this process. Out of all the small talk I read about spacial design and food variation, I came to the conclusion that dining halls are spaces that foster a sense of community based on the food, space, meal plan, and awareness of those who utilize this service. The moment we have all been waiting for, my research paper, will be about this topic and I am excited to embark on this long 8-10 page journey. Here we go!

♥ Little Kelli