Annotated Bibliography

Kronbeck

Annotated bibliography

As a precursor to your research paper, you will be writing a bibliography, which includes an annotation for each of the sources you plan to use.

An annotated bibliography is a list, in MLA style, of sources used in a particular essay. Each citation is followed by a paragraph (the annotation) that includes a brief summary of that source’s main points, an assessment of the source, and how the source relates to the essay’s topic.

Criteria:

· Just as for your research paper, your bibliography must include 5 sources total. Look for sources in the library catalog, or databases such as Gale Literary Sources, Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, or the MLA International Bibliography with Full Text on the ELAC library website.

· Include a creative working title for your research paper.

· Your annotations must be between 150 and 250 words long. You must do three things in each annotation:

· Summarize the main points of the source.

· Assess the source. Here, reflect on the source’s:

· Goal (What is the source trying to do? Educate? Argue? Inform? Convince? Find a strong verb to help you explain).

· Biases (Is the source objective/neutral or heavily trying to influence its readers to believe something? This is connected to the source’s goal. You may also consider what else the author could have added to his or her argument in this section).

· Reliability (How do you know the author is reputable? How do you know the publication is reputable? Do a Google search on both if you have to!).

· Reflect specifically on the usefulness of the source to your paper.

· Your citations must follow MLA style. It is your job to use the OWL at Purdue website to figure out how to format each citation. Remember, though, that many library databases format citations for you. You can just copy and paste them!

· Your citations/annotations should be listed in alphabetical order by the last name of the author or, if there is no author, the first main word in the title (NOT “the,” “a,” or “an”).

Here is a sample citation and annotation (for a different type of essay), with the assessment underlined (you should not underline this part in your annotation).

Granger, Hermione. “Community College Makeover.” Los Angeles Times. 8 Jan. 2012. Web. www.latimes.com/communitycollegemakeover. 11 Jan. 2012.

This article focuses on the weakening of “open access to higher education in California” and the changes a state task force is proposing to transform the way community colleges are run, hopefully making them more efficient and fair. While Granger agrees that some of these proposed changes are necessary, such as revoking registration priority to students who have taken 100 units or more, she also sees the problems in the task force’s recommendations, such as the lack of funding to implement these changes and the rigidity in the academic plans students would be forced to make. The goal of this source is to educate readers about the proposed changes to California community colleges and to critique the changes that would harm instead of help students. The article is reliable because it is published in a reputable newspaper, The Los Angeles Times. Also, the author, after graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, went on to obtain her doctorate degree in investigative journalism and now writes for the Los Angeles times and other publications. Although Granger is mostly fair in assessing the task force’s proposed changes, she has a definite argument in favor of open access education. Also, the article would be more effective if the author had used more data to support the argument. This source has helped me understand the problems facing community colleges in much more depth and will be useful to my paper because of its thoroughness in relating the changes the task force proposes. I plan to use this source to emphasize the budgetary problems community colleges face and why the task force’s recommendations will not work.