Assignment Question
Your research paper needs to include at least four secondary sources. To help you along with this and make sure you are finding relevant sources, you will create an annotated bibliography of at least four sources (but you don’t have to end up using them in your final paper). What is an annotated bibliography? A bibliography is a list of citations to sources (books, articles, films, websites, etc.) that you’ve used when researching a topic. An annotated bibliography includes a summary and evaluation of each source.
These annotations are written in paragraph form and should include the following information:
1. a short summary of key findings or arguments of the source
2. the academic/intellectual credentials of the source. Does it appear in a peer-reviewed journal? Is the author someone who has expertise in the area? Is it in a magazine? Is it a documentary? A film? What else and why should that source be credible enough for your research?
3. any shortcomings or biases you notice
4. the value of this work as a contribution to the topic you’re exploring. What good is it? The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University (owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/) has a terrific explanation of the value of annotated bibliographies.
Here it is, quoted verbatim: To learn about your topic: Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. Just collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you’re forced to read each source more carefully. You begin to read more critically instead of just collecting information. At the professional level, annotated bibliographies allow you to see what has been done in the literature and where your own research or scholarship can fit. To help you formulate a thesis: Every good research paper is an argument. The purpose of research is to state and support a thesis. So a very important part of research is developing a thesis that is debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated bibliography can help you gain a good perspective on what is being said about your topic. By reading a variety of sources on a topic, you’ll start to see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and you’ll then be able to develop your own point of view. Now your paper isn’t an argument exactly, but it is important to know what is being said about your topic and how your research confirms or challenges those beliefs. Your annotated bibliography will contain the following elements in this order: a. A description of your research topic and your research question. This description should explain what the topic is and why you found it intriguing. Length: 50-150 words. c. The annotated bibliography. Length: about four to five sentences per source. The sources should be listed in alphabetical order by author’s last name and should be formatted in a MLA works cited format followed by the annotation
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