60+ Popular Annotated Bibliography Topics for Students

AICPA sets ethical standards for outsourcing. (2005). Journal of Accountancy, 199(1), 8-8. Retrieved from http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/

This article presents the new standards for outsourcing developed by the AICPA ethics committee. The standards are summarized, and a brief discussion is included of the implications going forward for business and international trade. The authors indicate that changes to the business community will be relatively minor. This is a helpful source for getting an overview of the current ethical standards in outsourcing.

American Management Association. (1996). The AMA style guide for business writing. New York, NY: Author.

The American Management Association has created its own guide for business writing. Designed as a supplemental text to more thorough style guides such as APA, this guide covers topics relating specifically to business, such as citing financials, formatting of company reports, and professional approaches to information integrity in the workplace. This is indispensable work for anyone doing professional business writing.

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. (2003). enGauge 21st Century Skills: Literacy in the digital age. Naperville, IL: Author.

This report identifies a set of skills that contribute to Digital Age readiness. The enGauge21st Century Skills were developed through literature reviews, research on emerging characteristics of the Net Generation, review of current reports on workforce trends from business and industry, analysis of nationally recognized skillsets, input from educators, and reactions from constituent groups.

Data were also gathered from educators at state-level conference sessions in 10 states, surveys, and focus groups in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Initial drafts of the enGauge21st Century Skills were reviewed by experts in the field prior to inclusion in the enGaugelist.

Mercer, Susan (1996). Navajo elderly people in a reservation nursing home: Admission predictors and cultural care practices. Social Work, 41(2), 181-189.

Qualitative research was conducted at a Navajo nursing home located in Chinle, Arizona. The research explored the reasons why elderly Navajos were placed in the nursing home, what cultural practices are conducted at the nursing home and the implications of those practices explained by those who work with Navajo elders. The term “cultural care” is defined as “the learned and transmitted values and beliefs that enable people to maintain their well-being and health and to deal with illness, disability, and death.”

Research from the article indicates that elders who live off the reservation reported loneliness, depression, and isolation. In contrast, elders at the nursing home on the reservation appeared to be content, satisfied, and at home. The researcher begins by talking about Navajo culture and religious practices to give the reader an idea of what it is like to be Navajo and elderly and as well as some historical background.

Demographics are also described, including the fact that nearly half of all Navajos live below the poverty level, many do not have running water or electricity, and eighty percent do not have telephones.

The Navajo Nation only has two nursing homes. It cannot provide all the care needed for Robin Bonifas, Ph.D., MSW College of Public Programs Assistant Professor SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK 4 all the Navajo Elders. Data was collected by the researcher through semistructured interviews with residents and their families that included medical and social histories. Data was also collected with key nursing staff and administrative staff.

Cultural and spiritual practices were also taken into account in a Navajo nursing home. For instance, the nursing home in Chinle has saunas to simulate “sweat baths,” which to residents cleans you inside and out spiritually. The home also allows residents to sleep in their regular day clothes if they wish because some are not used to “sleep clothes.” They serve traditional foods, and staff respects the wishes of the residents to abstain from certain foods following a ceremony.

Advanced directives are not pressured upon the residents because of religious beliefs. If there is a death in the nursing home, a ceremonial singer would come and cleanse the room before it was used again to not contaminate or bring illness to the other residents.

A traditional hogan was built alongside the nursing home so that residents and families could use it for prayers and ceremonies. Cultural care practice is an important need for all nursing homes on and off reservations to ensure the quality of life for Native American elders.

Bennett, C.W., & Ling, D. (1977). Effects of Voiced-Voiceless Discrimination Training Upon Articulation of Hearing-Impaired Children. Language and Speech, 20(3), 287-293 [Electronic Version]

This article questions whether voiced-voiceless discrimination training will aid the articulation in hearing-impaired children. Six severely hearing-impaired children ranging from 8-10 years of age were the subjects. One group of 3 children received discrimination training on the /ba-pa/ distinction and the second group of 3 children received training on the /ba-pa/, /da-ta/, and /ga-ka/ distinctions. A vibrotactile aid was used so the individuals could feel the voice onset time.

Once the individual correctly distinguished between voiced and voiceless stops for a certain criterion, the vibrotactile cue was reduced in intensity. The next step involved responding to voiced and voiceless syllables by producing them. The results showed that the training in audition alone does result in improved production.

Subjects in the first group showed greater generalization, perhaps due to the limited set in training. This may have helped the hearing-impaired children focus on the critical variable of voice onset time.

“Our hypothesis was that by providing training through audition alone, we could change the perceptual strategies of children who relied heavily upon vision in such a way that their articulation would be improved with regard to the voicing dimension.” Page 288.

Assessing views about youth, rehabilitation, and punishment. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 31(3), 459- 479. Doi: 10.1007/s10940-014-9234-52

The authors of this study seek to discover whether there is public support for what they describe as a “balanced justice” approach to punishing juveniles. Balanced justice is a combined emphasis on rehabilitation and punishment rather than focusing on one method or the other. Surveys were sent out to Criminal Justice undergraduate students at two large universities in the American Southeast.

Students showed clear support for balanced justice, and the majority of those who felt stronger for one over the other emphasized a rehabilitation strategy. There was also a strong correlation between those who favored balanced justice with those who believed offenders were capable, wanted, and deserved treatment to rehabilitate bad behavior.

This article makes a strong argument that balanced justice methods should be emphasized for juvenile offenders and adds a more nuanced perspective to traditional arguments for rehabilitation over punishment for juveniles. The literature review is thorough and places this new idea firmly in the context of previous research. The methods are logical, and the conclusions presented clearly come from the research.

However, there was little discussion of the study only surveying Criminal Justice majors. While the authors state that Criminal Justice majors represent the overall university population, few details are provided about the demographics of the universities. Overall, this article supports my research question and provides a clear and useful example of public support for increased rehabilitative programming within juvenile institutions.

This paper seeks to determine the relationship between the length of DNA segments and the rate of homologous mitotic recombination. They discovered a linear response in segments from 960 bp down to 250 bp. However, the efficiency of recombination always fell substantially at 250 bp regardless of where the repeats were positioned in the yeast genome.

This phenomenon of suppressed short sequence recombination is what our project seeks to explain. Our current hypothesis is that upon the formation of a double-strand break, exonucleolytic activity destabilizes DNA ends so that they cannot take part in SSR.

Politics & Government Week. “Canadians Want a Health Care System Accountable to Patients. (Report).” High Beam Research. Cengage Learning, 8 Sept. 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

This article focuses on the findings of the eleventh annual National Report Card on Health Care in Canada. The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) revealed that Canadians are looking for a health care system that places more power and accountability in the hands of patients when it comes to their care. Aside from these findings, the report card discloses general disappointment among Canadians with the current actions of the federal government regarding health care.

The evidence used in the article has been attained from a credible source as it consults the survey results of the annual Ipsos Reid survey on Canadian perception of health care services. Overall, the article is relevant as it seeks to expose the Canadian public’s opinion Canadians hold of their public health sector.

Forbat L. & Wilkinson H. (2007) Where should people with dementia live? Using the views of service users to inform models of care. British Journal of Learning Disabilities 36, 6-12.

This article explores the experiences of service users who have or live with someone who has dementia. It proposes that attaining individuals’ understanding of dementia can enhance service provision and ensure best practices when delivering services and care to people with ID. The introduction to this paper is well laid out and illuminates the challenges faced in delivering effective care as people with ID age.

Although not clearly stated, the research design is within the qualitative model, using a mixed-method approach. The study also lacks clarity on how the participants were recruited. According to Gerrish & Lacey (2010), criteria for sample selection regarding the ethnographical element of the study should be explicit, which it is not.

Nonetheless, it is apparent that in total, there were 16 participants, 8 of whom had experiences of living with someone with dementia (these formulated the focus group) and 8 participants who had a diagnosis of dementia (involved in the ethnographic part of the study).

However, of the 8 participants taking part in the ethnographic study, only 2 participants' experiences were reported. This was due to the progressive nature of dementia, which impacted their ability to participate in the study (Forbat et al., 2007).

The interviews were taped and transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis, which organized developing themes and patterns from the interviews (Forbat et al. 2007). Rigor was supported in some of the studies by describing aspects of an audit trail. A second researcher who analyzed the transcripts supported the rigor of the analytic process. However, a major component of rigor is to provide evidence of how the researcher represents the participants’ experiences (Ryan et al., 2007).

Another important aspect is confirming that the interviews of the participants’ experiences are typed verbatim. These should then be returned to the participants to confirm that it is a true reflection of their interview. The study lacks this important aspect, and therefore the trustworthiness of the study has been impacted. The researchers could have enlisted the help of an advocate for the service users’, which would enhance the credibility of the study (Parahoo 2006).

The main themes that emerged from the study of those living with a peer with dementia were; their lack of understanding around dementia; the sense of loss for a friend who was forgetful and confused; the increased amount of time staff spent looking after the person with dementia, and concerns of what will happen to their friends in the future.

Although the sample size is small, the researchers recognize that substantial claims cannot be made. However, the experiences uncovered highlight that there is an obvious need to develop service provision when individuals with ID develop dementia. It not only 8 affects the person with dementia and significantly impacts the living environment of those sharing a house.

Sharples, M., Hogg, D., Hutchison, C., Torrance, S., & Young, D. (1989). Computers and thought: a practical introduction to artificial intelligence. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. xix-32.

Mike Sharples is part of the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences at the University of Sussex, England. David Hogg is with the School of Computer Studies at the University of Leeds. Steve Torrance is a professor of Cognitive Science at Middlesex University.

The intended audience of this work is beginners with little or no computer background regarding artificial intelligence. The foreword and the first chapter, titled “Towards Artificial Intelligence,” give a thorough introduction to what artificial intelligence is in general.

Also, the first chapter’s purpose is to compare machines versus the mind or brain. In contrasting these two, the reader can better understand how scientists are creating artificial intelligence.

The authors give visual examples for the reader to understand, as well as graphs. Also, they include exercises to help the reader learn. Despite the examples, graphs, and exercises, the language seems to be too advanced for the writers’ intended audience of beginners to the subject.

This book could be read alongside Margaret A. Boden’s (Ed.) (1996), Artificial intelligence (2nd ed., San Diego: Academic Press, pp. xv-xvii). Most of the authors in this book have contributed to Boden’s work.

Streeter, Stephen M. ``Interpreting the 1954 U.S. Intervention in Guatemala: Realist, Revisionist, and Postrevisionist Perspectives.” The History Teacher 34, 1 (2000): 61-74.

Streeter raises, among others, two important questions germane to this project: “What role did the [United Fruit Company] play in the [1954 US intervention in Guatemala?” and “did anti-communism serve merely as the pretext for overthrowing a nationalist regime that threatened US hegemony?” Streeter answers both questions by examining how previous historians have approached the same questions, offering insight into political, economic, and social factors that have shaped those interpretations.

He identifies three kinds of interpretations – realist, revisionist, and post-revisionist – that have competed over how the US public understands and remembers the 1954 US intervention. Realists, on the one hand, have tended to see Soviet expansion as a real threat.

The US intervention, in their minds, was ultimately justifiable in the context of the Cold War. Revisionists, on the other hand, have blamed the intervention on anticommunist hysteria among US Cold warriors and thus see the government as simply acting in the interests of United Fruit irrespective of any real Soviet expansion. Post-revisionists, Streeter contends, have been concerned with the “cultural and ideological influences that warped Washington’s perception of the Communist threat.”

Some post-revisionists have minimized the role that United Fruit played in the intervention and have instead argued that anti-communism was so rampant within the Eisenhower administration that it would have moved to overthrow Arbenz without the influence of United Fruit.

This project will, in part, use Streeter’s article to assess whether or not this particular post-revisionist argument holds water or whether or not historians ought to allow United Fruit a more integral role in the coup.

Battle, Ken. 2007. “Child poverty: The evolution and impact of child benefits.” Pp. 21-44 in A Question of Commitment: Children's Rights in Canada, edited by K. Covell and R. B. Howe. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Ken Battle draws on his research as an extensively published policy analyst and a close study of some government documents to explain child benefits in Canada. He outlines some fundamental assumptions supporting the belief that all society members should contribute to the upbringing of children.

His comparison of Canadian child poverty rates to those in other countries provides a useful wake-up to anyone assuming Canadian society is doing a good job of protecting children from want. He pays particular attention to the National Child Benefit (NCB), arguing that it did not deserve the criticism it received from politicians and journalists.

He outlines the NCB’s development, costs, and benefits, including its dollar contribution to a typical recipient’s income. He laments that the Conservative government scaled back the program in favor of the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) and clearly explains why it is inferior. However, Battle relies too heavily on his work; he is the sole or primary author of almost half the sources in his bibliography.

He could make this work stronger by drawing from the perspectives of others' analyses. However, Battle does offer a valuable source for this essay because the chapter provides a concise overview of government-funded assistance currently available to parents. This offers context for analyzing the scope and financial reality of child poverty in Canada.