englis 12

Module 12: Lesson and Notes

What is an Annotated Bibliography? 

 A bibliography is a list of sources on a topic. An ANNOTATED Bibliography is a list of sources with annotations. Basically an annotation focuses on a source; it's a paragraph where you will discuss the source and evaluate its potential usefulness for your research (in this case, the research for the final essay).

See  this resource for more about Annotated Bibliographies (Links to an external site.) .

The purpose of the annotated bibliography assigned in this module is to help you explore your essay topic idea and gather sources for your literature research essay assigned in Module 15. 

What is the difference between an Annotated Bibliography and a Works Cited list? 

One thing a bibliography and a Works Cited page have in common is both have source citations listed in MLA style.  The difference, however, is that a bibliography exists on its own, it is every source used, while a Works Cited list is part of a research essay, it is every source cited. All sources on a Works Cited are there because they are used somewhere in an essay (directly quoted, paraphrased or summarized information must be cited).

Source citations from your Annotated Bibliography can certainly be copied to your research essay Works Cited page later if you use those sources in your essay—just don't copy the annotations too.  

What types of sources are needed for this Annotated Bibliography?

With college writing, it's important to use valid source material. Searching for articles in the library databases is the best way to find reliable source material. For tips on evaluating sources,  see this answer from a TCC librarian. (Links to an external site.)

The information below from the assignment instructions, explains the specific types of sources you need to find.

To help focus your topic idea, this assignment requires sources that could work for various critical approaches. Find at least one source for each of the categories below :

· Biographical Information about the Author A source with information about the author’s life, such as an encyclopedia article.

· Historical Relevance This can be a source relevant to the time period the story is set or when it was written.

· A Social Issue relevant to the story or poem This source needs to focus on any social issue (such as class, race, gender, ageism, or cultural identity).

· A work of literary criticism This is a source written by a literary scholar that evaluates or interprets a literary work. The library databases are the best place to find literary criticism.

Feel free to include more than one source that fits any of the above categories, especially if you already decided on a topic idea for your literature research essay.

How do I search the TCC library databases?

This  resource shows steps to search for articles in multiple databases at once:  Using the TCC Catalog (Links to an external site.)

You can also select specific databases to search. One of my favorite databases for searching literature topics is Literary Reference Center. In this database you can narrow the results by source types like "Biography" and "Literary Criticism," which are types of sources you must locate for this assignment! 

Searching the databases may feel challenging at times. Brainstorming a list of search terms can be helpful. For example, if I plan to write about Edwidge Danticat's short story "A Wall of Fire Rising," I would certainly use the author's name and the title as search terms. But I would also search relevant topics such as Dutty Boukman, the 1791 Haitian Revolution, and Haiti.

See the  Finding Materials Overview PageLinks to an external site.  for more about searching the library. 

Resources to help with the annotated bibliography (previously given in Modules 8 and 11):

·

· Annotated Bibliography.pdf  Download Annotated Bibliography.pdf

· Annotated Bibliography.pptx  Download Annotated Bibliography.pptx

· Example Formatting for AnnBib.docx    Download Example Formatting for AnnBib.docx    

· Example Formatting for AnnBib.pdf    Download Example Formatting for AnnBib.pdf