This is a reflection on the annotated bibliography we turned in last Thursday.
I don't know about you guys, but it took me a really long time before I could put anything down on paper as I was writing my annotated bibliography. After hours of reading a variety of sources, I realized that it was so hard to write because I didn't have any specific goals; the revised research question I had formed was still too broad: How did the law shape the lives of American women in the 19th century. So I referred back to the research proposal I got back from Natalia. One of the comments she gave was to refer back to Sweet Cicely to identify specific laws mentioned in the book. I took a step back and tried to come up with several laws that I could do research on to produce a substantial 8-10 page research paper. After all those hours of writer's block, I wrote the following on top of my draft: How did laws regarding ownership of property, possession of alcohol, and domestic abuse affect American women in the 19th century? After I wrote that question down, my annotated bibliography started to take shape.
In my research so far, I was not able to find any specific laws regarding those three aspects of woman life in the 19th century. I started to panic that maybe I would need an entirely new research proposal! But what I did find were testimonials and personal accounts of prominent women figure in the 19th century, such as Elizabeth Stanton, that covered these issues. I was relieved that I did not waste all these hours reading sources to write my bibliography. Hopefully I will be able to find more useful sources in the following weeks.
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Hey Khang,I haven't read Sweet Cicely yet, but I am curious about how this research question will help us understand Sweet Cicely better. I remember you mentioned something about historical accuracy of the novel...anything else?
I actually had a very similar problem. As I was reading sources I started changing my research question. At this point I'm still not entirely convinced that I know exactly what my question is.
It still resembles what I outlined in my proposal, but my focus has shifted and I'm pretty sure it will continue to shift until the night before this paper is actually due.
It's funny how questions lead you to sources which in turn change your question which leads you to new sources and so on and so on...
The annotated bibliography also took me quite a while. However, I was glad I chose "The Conjure Woman." There was no need to fight for sources at the library! I was able to focus my research question a bit more, since my original proposal was too broad.
I think part of the benefit of the annotated bibliography was being able to narrow down our research topics. I too did not like my original idea very much after researching more and more. But, then I eventually was able to focus down on a topic. I think my topic is going to be continuously reworked as I continue to research and as I write my paper. I'm glad that you were able to focus down on a topic!
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