English Bibliography correction MLA style

Writing the Annotated Bibliography

Upon the completion of the Annotated Bibliography, you will have demonstrated that you can use the citation style appropriate to your discipline, work in a collaborative setting both with your own texts and with those of other settings via the workshop, and show through your annotations that you can read disciplinary essays and comment critically on their meaning and structure as it applies to their utilization in your research paper.

The annotated bibliography sounds a LOT scarier than it is. This sheet will tell you precisely what I’m looking for you to do and why you are doing it. Use the rubric to guide you, as well.

We all know what a bibliography is: a listing of citations of sources. So the first step in this assignment is to just do the full citations of the sources that you are using for your research paper as they would appear on your bibliographic page (for some of you that's a Works Cited, for some a References, for some a References List, for some a Bibliography, and for yet others, a Notes or End Notes page: do what’s appropriate for your documentation style). Put them in the order in which they should appear according to your format-- again, check this. For most of you, that's in alphabetical order, but for others, that's in the order in which they will appear in the paper.

Second , I want you to get your outline out (or write one if you haven’t by this point!)-- make sure it's as full and detailed as possible. I am going to want to see not just Roman numerals and ABCs, but 123s, too! See the Outline Template in Paper Information – Paper 4 if you need some help. Consider this your final draft of the outline. At the end of lines on the outline, where appropriate, put in citations for your sources where you plan to use them in your paper to support your ideas. You may find you use some sources more than once, and this is okay, as long as you’re not using a single source EVERYWHERE! Remember at some points you should be synthesizing, too, and that should be reflected in your outline.

Third , you need to write the annotations on your bibliography. Under each of your citations, you need to write a short paragraph (an annotation!) that tells me these things, in this order:

1. What type of source it is -- a Web site? a journal article? a newspaper article? an interview? What is this thing you're using? And just state it-- "This is a newspaper article." There serves two purposes. First, it makes sure that YOU know what it is so you can cite it right, and second, it tells ME what it is so I can look it up in Lunsford and see if you cited it right or if I need to help you see how/where to correct it so it is 100% correct for your research paper.

2. Whether or not the source is peer-reviewed and how you know this. If you look at the Prompt for Paper 4, you will see that at least four (4) of your sources should be peer reviewed, and chapters in Lester and Lester covered what is and isn't a scholarly source. So write a sentence or two that says the source is or isn't peer-reviewed and how you determined this. Note now that newspapers and magazines are never, ever peer-reviewed and scholarly, and 99% of books are NOT, either, even if someone with a doctorate wrote them or if they are textbooks.

3. What information this source provides for your paper. Summarize, in a few sentences to a paragraph, what this source will do for you. Will it define something? Explain it? Provide stats/facts or prove something? Provide a counterargument? This is very important-- if you don't know WHY you are using it, well, then, WHY are you trying to use it? (That’s part of the reason for doing this assignment—to find that out NOW while you have time to replace the source!)

4. Where in your outline you are using the source? I want you to say specifically, "I will be using this to support IA in my argument" or where ever you are going to use it. A source may be used once or it may be used multiple times. Look at that outline and tell me where you are going to use it! You were supposed to have done this on the outline already, so this part should be quick and simple.

When you finally are done with the annotations, copy and paste your outline underneath your bibliography. DO NOT submit it as a separate document-- I want one, nice, long document.

The Annotated Bibliography is, then, a planning tool that provides a complete citation of a source and forces you to think about how and why you are using it in your paper . It is not uncommon at all for students to try to do this assignment and realize that they have sources that they simply don't need or that they have holes in their paper that need sources to support them. If this happens, don't panic-- simply do a little more research and find what you need. You still have some time to tie up loose ends! You are allowed to use 6-10 sources. Use them wisely. Remember that at least FOUR should be peer-reviewed and scholarly in nature.

You have a workshop for this assignment, too . Look not just at citations but check for spelling/grammar, etc. errors in the annotations. If you see an error in the citation, use your textbook to give a page number/example number of how the person should correct it-- don't feel the need to fix every comma, colon, and capitalization error.

When I grade these, you start with full credit. I deduct points for incorrect citations (very small deductions for good faith efforts, larger ones for those who obviously just threw some slop together to turn it in). I also deduct points for each of the 4 things you don't include that are outlined above, and I take deductions for errors or a missing outline.

It's easy to score high on this, and it's easy to score low on it, too.