Assessment item 1: Annotated bibliography
Value: 15%
Due date: 22-Mar-2015
Return date: 12-Apr-2015
Length: 600 words (300 words per annotated bibliography)
Submission method options
Alternative submission method
Task
You are required to find two (2) academic-standard articles, which are relevant to your essay question for Assessment items 3 and 4, and write a brief summary of each article.

You are then required to integrate and critically analyse the two articles. This section of the assignment should draw out the main issues from your summaries. You should not describe the articles again; however, you should critically analyse the articles by comparing and contrasting the various ideas expressed in the articles you have chosen to discuss.

Selection of the articles is critical to getting a good mark. Articles should maintain a theme, or discuss similar ideas/theories, so you can make comparisons between the two articles. Merely writing up the first two articles that you find is likely to make this integration process difficult to complete.

Topic areas for you to select two articles to analyse are:
1. Plagiarism
2. Critical thinking skills
3. Successful study
4. Time management
5. Improving student English writing abilities

1. Understand the topic
One of the most common mistakes that students make is failing to understand or address the topic or question. Therefore, it is important that you make sure you understand precisely what your topic or question means. To do this, discuss the topic and any related questions with your lecturer.
Note: The articles that are presented in this assessment task may also be useful for Assessment items 3 and 4, so keep in mind how you would use your articles to write these assessment tasks.

2. Finding articles
For this assessment task, you are required to find two (2) academic standard articles. What this means is that you are required to find articles that come from journals with a high level of editorial review are required. Articles from the popular press (Newspapers, Magazines, the Internet, etc.) will be unacceptable. As a general rule, academic articles include a list of references and often begin with an abstract (a brief summary of the article). If you have any doubts about whether an article from a different source is of an academic standard, please check with your lecturer or a library staff member.

3. Summarising articles
You should produce a brief summary (approximately 200 words) of each article, outlining the research and any findings or conclusions. This should include information on what research was conducted or reviewed, and why the writer/s came to the conclusions they reached, as well as any criticisms you may have of the article. Your summary must not be simply a copy of the abstract of the article.
A link to your two online articles used is to be included in the form of a Reference List, for purposes of verification.

4. Integration and critique of articles
You should integrate and critically analyse the two articles you collected for your annotated bibliography. What this requires you to do, is to look at the findings or conclusions of the articles – whether they are the same, or different from each other. If they differ why do they differ? If they agree why do they agree? If they are talking about different aspects of the topic and neither disagree nor agree, what are those aspects?
This section of Assessment task 1 should be brief and draw out the main issues from your summaries. You should not just spend your time describing each article. This section of your work should account for 100 words maximum per article.
Note: Please ensure you become fully aware and familiar with all required criteria within the Marking criteria and standards of performance information provided below.

Resources
For examples and guidance with the writing of an annotated bibliography, please refer to:
CSU Learning Skills (2014). Writing an annotated bibliography. Viewed on February 4, 2014, available from: http://student.csu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/186444/annotate1.pdf

Rationale
The aim of this annotated bibliography assessment task is to enable you to demonstrate your understanding of relevant issues in your chosen topic area. Moreover, this assessment task aims to develop your critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills.
Students should be able to locate, paraphrase, summarise and comprehend simple to complex English texts.