Outline and Annotated Bibliography
The planning of technical and scientific documents is essential for clear and concise communication. Keeping audience and purpose in mind, the writer must generate ideas about a chosen topic, and then, organize those ideas in the form of a working outline, while also researching additional information and understanding its place in the overall project at hand. For reference, the following are possible topics for your Final Project:
You will need instructor approval if you choose to use a different topic. Please submit this request by the end of Week Two.
For this assignment, you will create (1) an outline and (2) an annotated bibliography, which will form the foundation for the Final Project.
Page 44 of Technical Communication offers clustering and tree-diagram techniques for developing supporting ideas around a main topic. You are encouraged to explore these techniques. You will then organize those ideas in the form of a working outline.
Outline steps:
Regarding research and the development of an annotated bibliography, the author of Technical Communication states on page 43:
Once you have a good idea of what you already know about your topic, you need to obtain the rest of the information you will need. You can find and evaluate what other people have already written by reading reference books, scholarly books, articles, [and] Web sites (author, date).
Immediately following the outline you have just developed, and in the same document file, you will include an annotated bibliography of no less than 10 entries.
Annotated bibliography steps:
Used by permission of Olin Library Reference, Research & Learning Services, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Carefully review the Grading Rubric for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.