Prepare: Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) and Annotated Bibliography (Links to an external site.) web pages, and Evaluating Sources (Links to an external site.) and Annotated Bibliography (Links to an external site.) tutorials.

Reflect: Reflect on the global societal issue that you would like to further address. Explore critical insights on the topic chosen and begin your search for scholarly sources with those insights in mind.

Topic chosen:  Poverty and income inequality 

Write: For this assignment, review the Annotated Bibliography Formatting Guidelines and address the following prompts:

• Introductory paragraph to topic (refer to the Final Paper guidelines for your topic selection).
  • Write an introductory paragraph with at least 150 words that clearly explains the topic, the importance of further research, and ethical implications.
• Thesis statement.
  • Write a direct and concise thesis statement, which will become the solution to the problem that you will argue or prove in the Week 5 Final Paper. (A thesis statement should be a concise, declarative statement. The thesis statement must appear at the end of the introductory paragraph.)
• Annotated bibliography.
  • Develop an annotated bibliography to indicate the quality of the sources you have read.
  • Summarize in your own words how the source contributes to the solution of the global societal issue for each annotation.
  • Address fully the purpose, content, evidence, and relation to other sources you found on this topic (your annotation should be one to two paragraphs long—150 words or more.
  • Include no less than five scholarly sources in the annotated bibliography that will be used to support the major points of the Final Paper.
  • Demonstrate critical thinking skills by accurately interpreting evidence used to support various positions of the topic.

The Introduction, Thesis Statement, and Annotated Bibliography

• Must be 1,000 to 1,250 words in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource. 
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted