Module 4: Broader Community Study
MODULE OBJECTIVES
Apply knowledge from local communities to research broader social issues demonstrating critical awareness Identify relevant and reliable sources done through secondary research Synthesize information about racial and ethnic biases and other social justice issues and confront these issues in writing (p. 382).
In module 3, you conducted first-hand primary research, and now it is time to conduct secondary research on your topic: “secondary research involves research using already existing data and consulting published sources” (383). As we have already discussed, many people have already researched your topic, and they may exist in various forms: peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, books, TED Talk episodes, Podcast episodes, etc. Now, it is time to review some of the existing research. To borrow the term from the module title, it is the time to reach a broader community of scholars in your study or research. UTEP FYCH reads:
Broader Community Study: The broader community study will build upon students’ local research, extending it into a study that goes beyond one’s immediate communities. Students have the option to change their focus. This project will incorporate secondary research in order to examine the societal impact of their chosen issue. This includes developing a larger list of sources and creating an annotated bibliography.
This module wants you to produce an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography is a list of sources each with a brief annotation that summarizes and evaluates the source. Thus, sometimes, called an evaluative bibliography. Therefore, “Unless encouraged by your instructor to do an alternative project, you will produce an evaluated annotated bibliography in which you will be building upon your list of sources to further help you understand your research (p. 382). Nevertheless, we cannot forget the concept of reliability in research. While collecting resources for an annotated bibliography, we need to think of their reliability. For example, to mine reliable and credible articles, we may think of the following: is the article from a reputed and reliable journal? Was it peer-reviewed? Does it make a strong argument? Does it have a recent perspective? Has it been cited by some other scholars? Does it add any new perspective to your research?