Amor Chavez Castillo

ENGL 1302-231
Dr. Nelson
11 February 2024
The Process of Writing an Annotated Bibliography

Through the first writing assignment in the course, the annotated bibliography, I learned

the importance of identifying the types of academic articles available and how to correctly cite

them to avoid plagiarism. With the “Original Research" classroom activity, I was able to

differentiate between original research and reviewed articles (Nelson). By observing the

italicized print over the title of academic articles or simply seeing the organization of the paper, I

can identify what type of journal article I am reading (Nelson, “Original Research”). For

instance, an article that states “review” goes in the category of “systematic reviews” because it is

combination of evidence on a certain topic rather than an original study which might use a label

like “original article” or “original research” (Nelson, “Original Research”). With the things I

learned through “Original Assignment”, I was able to identify things like the “year of

publication, article title, first author of each source, and journal title” with this information, I was

able to complete the citations for my ten journal articles and avoid plagiarism (Nelson, “Original

Research”).

To search for my ten articles, I had to use the TAMIU Library Database. I was able to

navigate through the library database by using the instructions on the “Library Research Packet”

which helped me use keywords to search through thousands of academic journals (Seminole

State College). Becoming knowledgeable on how to correctly navigate and search journal

articles will help me in my future Health Sciences courses. I will be able to properly look for
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articles to research things about kinesiology, physical therapy, and nursing. This helps me

become more familiar with how to find information for research papers on the subjects.

Creating an annotated bibliography, I can organize the articles I will be using for my

upcoming second writing assignment. An annotated bibliography allows me to condense,

analyze, and organize information found in academic articles. It allows me to find information

faster since many articles are pages long, allowing the research process to be much smoother.

The annotations help me dissect the information found on each article and understand how they

will allow me to correlate an argument for the future. Because my major revolves around the

science and health industry, being able to research articles on original analysis will help me in

my academic concentration. For instance, if I ever want to be part of a research team and my job

was to research information on how physical therapy helps patients heal at faster rates than

surgery, I will be familiar with how to search for articles on such topics. The annotated

bibliography helps me understand how to seek articles, analyze, organize, and eventually concise

them together and build an argument on what topic I am interested in.

As a writer, I get carried away with my thoughts and block out the errors in my writing so

conferencing with Dr. Nelson allowed me to see the mistakes in my draft one essay. Dr. Nelson

mentioned how there were grammar errors in my citations (Draft 1). This helped me be more

careful and revise the grammar and punctuation on all ten of my citations for my articles before

submitting my final draft. Another recommendation made by Dr. Nelson was changing the order

of my draft by organizing my sources in alphabetical order (Draft 1). With my instructor’s

comments, I was able to improve the presentation of my annotated bibliography to fulfill the

requirements before the submission of my final draft. This allowed me to see my mistakes and

avoid them in future assignments.

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After making the corrections from my instructor’s feedback, I was able to receive peer

review from a classmate to improve any other mistakes on my draft essay. My peer

recommended I check my embedded citations since I forgot to include the “et. al” after I

included the first name author of my source (Madrigal). This allowed me to correctly cite my

articles and provide credit to all authors not just one. Another correction made by my peer was

that I made my essay double spaced (Madrigal). Doing this helped me correctly apply the MLA

format to my essay which was a grading criterion for the final draft.

Because I had never written an annotated bibliography, the most challenging part of this

writing assignment was reading through my ten articles and summarizing them into a single

paragraph. Going through every article was time-consuming because of the amount of

information and research found on all of them. Being able to go through them and highlight the

most important components was the most difficult for me because of how lengthy the articles

were. Printing out the articles and physically writing notes on them and highlighting key terms

helped me stay focused on what I was reading for my summaries. The least challenging part of

the assignment was finding the articles I wanted to use. Since my research was on “mental

health” and “internet use”, I was available to find many articles on the topics because of how

popular they have gotten over the years (Chavez Castillo, “Final Draft”). This helped me quickly

find original research on the connection between both mental health and internet use, it was just

a matter of organization on which ones to choose.

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Works Cited
Chavez Castillo, Amor. “The Impact Internet Usage Hason Society’s Mental Health: An

Annotated Bibliography.” Final Draft. 9 February 2024. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M

International University.

Madrigal, Yaquelyn. “The Impact Internet Usage Hason Society’s Mental Health: Annotated

Bibliography” Draft 1. 2 February 2024. Peer Comment. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M

International University.

Nelson, Sharity. Original Research versus Literature Review Classroom Activity. 19 January

2024. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M International University.

Nelson, Sharity. “The Impact Internet Usage Hason Society’s Mental Health: Annotated

Bibliography” Draft 1. 2 February 2024. Professor Comment. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M

International University.

Seminole State College. “Library Research Packet.” 26 January 2024. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M

International University, homework assignment.