Kiara Ramon-Lozano

Dr. Sharity Nelson

ENGL 1302-231

11 February 2024

Composing My First Annotated Bibliography

In this unit, I learned about two types of peer-reviewed journal articles. During an

in-class activity, my classmates and I found bibliographic information and determined whether a

given source was original research or a literature review (Nelson, Comparing Articles). When we

reviewed our answers with Dr. Nelson, we were surprised that we incorrectly classified three

literature reviews as original research articles. Prior to this activity, I assumed that all journal

articles with the “IMRAD” structure were original research articles; however, Dr. Nelson noted

that some literature reviews follow this structure and recommended searching for the word

“review” in the margins, title, abstract, and introduction to determine which type of article I am

observing (Comparing Articles). Moreover, I learned that literature reviews are evaluations of

multiple sources surrounding one topic, while original research is one study built on the

foundation of other research (Nelson, Comparing Articles). Now that I understand the difference

between literature reviews and original research, I can identify literature reviews about my UNIV

1302 research topic–compassion–and use them to delve into discourse. Then, I will follow up

with original research articles to knowledgeably construct my annotated bibliography for that

course.

As I summarized sources, I discovered that creating an annotated bibliography can help

me find patterns in research. For instance, all 10 of my selected sources regarding smartphone
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overuse and mental wellness used self-report techniques for data collection and a cross-sectional

study design, which restricted researchers’ ability to come to an effective conclusion

(Ramon-Lozano, Final Draft). Thus, creating an annotated bibliography helped me recognize

commonalities in methodology and areas of research that are underdeveloped. Additionally,

writing an annotated bibliography strengthened my ability to summarize clearly and concisely. In

my first draft, 4 of my 10 annotations were over word count; however, all annotations were

within word count parameters after revising my work (Ramon-Lozano). Practicing succinct

writing taught me how to reduce wordiness and prioritize key points over details. These skills are

useful across genres, for they facilitate readability and audience engagement. Therefore,

annotated bibliographies will aid my research process and writing approach in the future by

encouraging me to gather my thoughts concisely and think critically about the relevance of my

sources, thus strengthening my claims based on refereed articles.

During my conference with Dr. Nelson, she stated that I incorrectly formatted “et. al” in

my sentences (Instructor comment). To meet MLA requirements, I added a comma and space

before “et al.” in each of the sentences where I mentioned the authors of studies with more than

three authors. For instance, I changed “Chen et al. evaluated…” and “Ercengiz et al. reported…”

in my first draft to “Chen, et al. evaluated…” and “Ercengiz, et al. reported…” in my final draft

(Ramon-Lozano). Additionally, when I asked whether to capitalize “among” in the titles of my

peer-reviewed journal articles, Dr. Nelson reminded me that prepositions are not capitalized in

titles with MLA formatting (Instructor comment). For example, I changed the title formatted as

“The Relationship Among Anxiety…” to “The Relationship among Anxiety…” (Ramon-Lozano,

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First Draft; Ramon-Lozano, Final Draft). This change allowed me to maintain formatting

consistency throughout my bibliographies.

In a discussion board, my peer informed me that I did not effectively discuss how I will

use my selected articles in my research (Villarreal). Since it is a requirement to evaluate the

relevance of each source at the end of each annotation, I corrected this error by elaborating on

the knowledge I gained through reading each article (TAMIU FYWP). For instance, I added how

“…Ercengiz, et al.’s study furthered my understanding of mediating and moderating variables in

behavioral research” in my final draft (Ramon-Lozano). Furthermore, my first draft’s in-text

citations only included page numbers (even in sentences that did not address the authors), so my

peer suggested that I include authors’ last names in my in-text citations (Ramon-Lozano;

Villarreal). I corrected this error by preceding each page number with the author’s last names in

my final draft: I changed “(3-4)” to “(Abuhamdah and Naser 3-4)” (Ramon-Lozano). These

seemingly small changes were necessary to ensure that I properly attributed thoughts and ideas to

their respective authors.

The most challenging aspect of this writing assignment was paraphrasing and interpreting

a study’s results. In all of my sources, statistical analyses were prominent since data collected

was primarily self-reported through surveys, and two or more variables were compared with one

another in a single study (Ramon-Lozano, Final Draft). Some unfamiliar terminology I came

across included “partial mediating variable,” “covariate,” and “positive correlation” (Kuru and

Çelenk 160-161). To better understand the study as a whole, I researched the significance of

these common terms and used them to explain a study’s results: “... those with more anxiety were

at risk for mobile phone dependence because of increases in mental rigidity” (Ramon-Lozano,
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Final Draft). On the other hand, the least challenging aspect of this writing assignment was

composing the bibliography because the authors, title, journal, page numbers, DOI, volume, and

issue number were instantly provided by the databases as soon as I entered my search in the

Academic Search Complete database. The following is an example of one of my ten complete

bibliographic entries: “Hashemi, Shima, et al. ‘Investigate the Relationship Between Cell-Phone

Over-Use Scale with Depression, Anxiety and Stress among University Students.’ BMC

Psychiatry, vol. 22, no. 755, 2022, pp. 1-9. Academic Search Complete,

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04419-8” (Ramon-Lozano, Final Draft).

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Works Cited

Kuru, Tacettin, and Sinem Çelenk. “The Relationship among Anxiety, Depression, and

Problematic Smartphone Use in University Students: The Mediating Effect of

Psychological Inflexibility.” Alpha Psychiatry, vol. 22, no. 3, 2021, pp 159-164.

Academic Search Complete, https://doi.org/10.5455/apd.136695.

Nelson, Sharity. Comparing Articles: Original Research and Literature Review Classroom

Activity. 19 January 2024. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M International University.

Nelson, Sharity. “ENGL 1302 - RG1 - Annotated Bibliography” by Kiara Ramon-Lozano. 5

February 2024. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M International University, instructor comment.

Ramon-Lozano, Kiara. “ENGL 1302 - RG1 - Annotated Bibliography.” 2 February 2024. ENGL

1302, Texas A&M International University, homework assignment.

Ramon-Lozano, Kiara. “The Correlation Between Mental and Emotional Wellness and

Smartphone Use in University Students: An Annotated Bibliography.” Final Draft. 9

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

TAMIU FYWP. “Research Genre 1: The Annotated Bibliography.” 19 January 2024. ENGL

1302, Texas A&M International University,

https://tamiu.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_69218_1/outline/edit/document/_4833905_1

?courseId=_69218_1. Accessed 22 January 2024. Class handout.

Villarreal, Ciara. “ENGL 1302 - RG1 - Annotated Bibliography” by Kiara Ramon-Lozano. 7

February 2024. ENGL 1302, Texas A&M International University, peer comment.