Midwifery: NURS 1059 Healthy Mothers and Babies

Assignment 1 - Annotated Bibliography

This assignment has 2 separate components: 

  • A Literature Search Short Report and
  • An Annotated Bibliography.  

​The topics for this assignment are provided by your lecturer in the course outline.

Please refer the learnonline course site for assessment instructions.

Plan your search

Start by identifying the concepts (main ideas) from your assignment topic prior to searching. 

Then consider alternative words for these concepts which, together with the concept term, become your searchable keywords.

Break down the question

Example: What impact does gestational weight gain have on the future health of women?

Concepts: - gestational weight gain

  • health

Synonyms - gestational, weight gain

  • pregnancy
  • weight increase, BMI, Body mass index, 
     

Now use AND and OR to combine your keywords

gestational OR pregnancy 
AND
weight gain OR weight increase OR BMI OR Body mass index
AND
health

Find journal articles

Journals are the primary medium for scholarly communication and account for a large percentage of university research output. Journals contain collections of articles and are generally published on a regular basis.

For further information about journal articles and a list of key databases to help with your research:

Search in databases

Journal articles are often found in databases.

Useful databases to search:

Search Emcare Tutorial 

Database limits and filters

Database limits and filters may be applied to reduce your search results if you have too many.  Some useful limits include 'English Language' or date. Note the following about using limits:

  • Using a limit only applies to the database you are currently searching. If you have selected more than one, only the results from the filtered database will display.

  • If the database is bibliographic (abstract) only – it won’t find any full-text. Using a full text limiter will therefore yield 0 results.

If you limit your results, there is always the potential that you could miss some important/useful research. 

Select appropriate references

You should critically evaluate all resources found to determine their appropriateness for your assignment. The video below explains more.

  • Having access to a lot of information can be overwhelming.
  • Evaluating information helps you decide what resources you should use.
  • One technique you can use is the CRAAP test.
  • Currency: How recent is the information? Does it suit your needs?
  • Relevance: Is the information relevant to your assignment?
  • Authority: Who wrote the information? Are they an expert?
  • Accuracy: Is the information accurate? Is it supported by evidence?
  • Purpose: Why was the resource created? Is there any bias?
  • You can use the CRAAP tool to think about these issues when evaluate your resources.

Write your Assignment

View the Student Engagement Unit's Academic Skills website for help writing your assignment, or to make an appointment with SEU staff.

This assignment should be written in 2 parts:

Part 1 is a Literature Search Short Report
This is a short report based on your literature search which should include the following sections:

  • keywords and search terms used
  • databases used
  • screening process
  • inclusion and exclusion criteria

Your report will need to contain a justification for the keywords/search terms and databases used and the articles chosen for Part 2.

Part 2 is an Annotated Bibliography

Summarise 5 of the articles from your literature search.  Articles chosen should represent a selection of different forms of evidence and consider varying perspectives. 

More help:

Correctly reference your sources

Referencing roadmap banner. Navigate to the referencing roadmap resource.

You must appropriately cite (‘acknowledge’) all references used in your assignment to avoid plagiarism.

If you need help, just ask!

Navigate to the Ask the Library webpage. Navigate to the UniSA study help pals webpage. Navigate to the Studiosity webpage. Navigate to the Learning Advisors' webpage.
Contact: Ask the Library Ask: the Study Help PALs Use: Studiosity Talk to: a Learning Adviser