write an annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography English 1302: Rhetoric and Composition II

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources on a specific topic that includes a summary of each source. As you research your topic, construct an annotated bibliography of relevant sources. Your final annotated bibliography should include annotations for at least ten sources that represent multiple perspectives on your issue. Please note: your next paper will require you to summarize sources that advocate at least three different positions on your issue, so you can save time on that paper by including in your annotated bibliography sources that support at least three distinct positions.

The list should be complied in alphabetical order using Modern Language Association (MLA) style. Consult the Purdue OWL website (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/) for directions on how to format entries.

Your annotation for each source should consist of two paragraphs. In the first, answer the following questions:

1. What kind of source is it—e.g., a book, journal article, magazine article, newspaper article, encyclopedia entry, database summary article, website, etc.? 2. What is the genre of the piece—e.g., a news report, an editorial, a report of scientific research, a summary of a number of sources? What is the purpose of the text? 3. Who is/are the author/authors? What are the author’s credentials? How does the author establish his or her authority to speak on this subject? Also consider the credibility of the publication venue. 4. Who is the intended audience? Consider where the text is published, the degree of specialized knowledge needed to understand the text, and how objective or argumentative the text is. 5. When was the text published? How does the publication date affect the relevance and usefulness of the source? In your second paragraph, summarize the content of the piece in a way that demonstrates you have read the source and understood its content. If the source is an argument, as opposed to a purely informational text, identify its main claim and supporting reasons. In addition, explain how you plan to use the source in your Researched Position Paper (obviously this plan may change as you conduct further research and begin drafting). Will you use the source for background information, and if so, what information specifically do you plan to use? Does the source contain evidence that you plan to borrow, and if so, what evidence? If the source is an argument, will you position it as an ally or an opponent, and why? Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry Estes, Todd. “The Connecticut Effect: The Great Compromise of 1787 and the History of Small

State Impact on Electoral College Outcomes.” Historian 73.2 (2011): 255-283. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

This journal article was written by Todd Estes, an Associate Professor of History at Oakland University, and was published in June 2011 in Historian, an academic history journal. Estes is credible because he is widely published in the discipline of history and has published numerous articles on the electoral process. Because Historian is an established journal in the field of history, the audience for this article comprises academic historians. That said, the article is accessible to non-specialists who possess some prior knowledge of the electoral process and how it was formed. Because the article was published within the last year, one can assume it represents current thinking in the field of history. The article addresses how the Connecticut Compromise, which gave smaller states disproportionate representation in the Electoral College, has affected presidential election outcomes throughout the years. My plan is to use much of the information presented here as background information in my Mapping the Issue paper and my Researched Position Paper. Specifically, I will borrow Estes’s comparison of the ratio of Electoral College voters to population in smaller states versus larger states.