essays

Annotated Bibliography:

Your annotated bibliography follows the same conventions as an MLA works cited page. However, after each entry for a source you must include about five sentences annotating the source. In these five sentences you must describe the content and or argument of the source, you must explain how you expect to use the source in your research paper, and you must evaluate the credibility of the source. The annotated bibliography should have ten sources on it. Your research paper will have at least eight sources in it. So, some of the sources that appear on your annotated bibliography may not appear in your research paper, and other sources that are not on your annotated bibliography may appear in your research paper. The annotations should be written in complete snetences.

When you describe the content and or argument of each source be sure to provide a concise, but thorough discussion of what the source contains. Think of this as a brief summary of the source and be sure to mention the topic, the position, and breadth of the source. If the source includes research or data be sure to mention those findings.

When you explain how you expect to use the source in your research paper, you might state that you are using it because it presents an important perspective on your topic, or it includes helpful statistics or research that support your solution, or that it provides an opposing viewpoint that is important to include to boost your credibility and show that you are aware of various views on the topic. You might use an older source to produce important background and or historical context that the reader needs to understand about the topic. You might choose to use a source because it has a great bibliography and or links to other helpful sources.

When you discuss the credibility of each source consider when the source was written, by whom, and for what publication. As we have discussed in class, even a Tweet can be used as a credible source as long as you are using it to show this is what people are saying about a current topic. You just need to think about how you are going to use a source in relation to evaluating its credibility. So, while an academic article by a highly respected scholar, published in a peer-reviewed journal seems credible, if it is from 1980 and on media, it may not be credible if you are focusing on social media in 2020. However, if you are discussing the ways media impacts us today versus in 1980 the article would be credible. Credibility can vary based on the context in which you are using a source and based on the way you frame the source. Note: Wikipedia is not a credible source regardless of the context.

*For examples and more on annotated bibliographies see pages 500-504 in Everyone’s an Author*

2-Page Literature Review:

In this part of the assignment you will write about two pages, double-spaced about how your sources speak to each other. Put your sources “in conversation” with each other. By this I mean you should explain how your sources relate to each other. Do they comment on each other directly or indirectly? An example of a source commenting directly on another source is when one source explicitly refers to the author of another source that you are using. An indirect comment means that one source discusses the ideas or argument of another of your sources, but does so without mentioning a specific author or article. Include what the authors would think about each other’s points. You also want to make sure that in your literature review you address ways your sources connect with each other, and work together to provide thorough background of the topic. Be careful to include differing positions on the topic.

In terms of organization, you probably do not want to compare every source to every other source. This kind of organization is unwieldy and not the most effective. Think about how the sources relate to one another logically. Do they follow a clear progression that makes a chronological organization most logical? Do they group by theme? By the authors’ perspectives? By research methods? By trends in the research? For instance, you might group a scholarly article that makes a particular argument with a personal narrative that supports that argument and with a source that has data and statistics that support the argument. Or, you might choose to group three sources that each express a different perspective on the topic together and explain how the differences are important to one’s full understanding of the conversation surrounding the topic. There is no one correct organizational structure. I do suggest avoiding going through the sources one by one. You want to highlight the ways the sources relate to each other, and grouping them provides a good way to highlight their relationships with each other.