Annotated Bibliography Assignment

WR 135 COLLEGE WRITING II— Informational Literacy T/R Tillinghast-Voit

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

The completed Annotated Bibliography Assignment for Four Sources is due Tuesday, May 5th .

College requires library research and careful documentation. The first two or three articles you discover may not necessarily be the ones that are best suited to support your thesis in future courses.

· This assignment, therefore, asks you to locate 5–7 sources —using news sources (NPR, Frontline, etc.) the library, and its databases—relevant to your research. I will expect to see these sources listed in your Works Cited for Essay 3.

· At least four of those sources must be scholarly or academic, meaning they must be peer-reviewed for this assignment. Please indicate how you know these sources have been reviewed by others in the chosen professional field. The assignment must be typed and double-spaced.

· Complete Annotated Bibliographies on these four sources in the following format.

** First, identify the question you are exploring (sometimes called the essential question).

*** State this question only once, at the head of your first page.

Then for each of the four sources, answer the following in complete sentences:

1. Citations

Write both a correct MLA and a correct APA citation (as entries for a works cited page and a references list). Citations from databases are often not correct; check citation against the recent [2009 and 2010] guidelines in your Little Seagull Handout (LS) and match the models.

2. Retrieval of Information (approximately one paragraph)

a. How and where did you locate the source? (library catalog, library database, internet?)

For a book, give its library call number. For a database source, give the name of the database. For an internet source, give the name of the search engine and website.

b. What is the source’s format? (print, electronic, video or audio?)

c. What type of source is it? (book? magazine article? reference article? scholarly journal article? newspaper article? online article?)

3. Quality of Information (one paragraph) in complete sentences

a. Authority and credentials of the author(s): Does the author or sponsoring organization have the background to speak with authority on this subject? Describe the author’s expertise.

b. Reliability of information: Does the information seem complete, reliable, and accurate? What evidence indicates this source been reviewed by others in that professional field?

c. Potential biases: Is the information fact, opinion or propaganda? Are opinions easy to identify?

d. Currency of the source: How up-to-date are the citations? Is older information helpful to your argument?

e. Reasoning & Validity: Does the writing support its central point with credible reasoning, sound logic and fact? Do the facts you have cited support your point or claim? Will you be able to explain this data and connect it to your thesis or argument?

4. Application of Information (two paragraphs) in complete sentences

a. A brief summary of the information useful to your research contained in the source.

b. How does this source expand and contribute to your analysis of the topic or your argument?

c. An explanation of how the source’s information specifically relates to your project.

i. Does this source seriously and responsibly represent a viewpoint different from your own? If so, how?

ii. Describe how this source specifically relates to the main idea of your paper (avoid generalities!)

You may use number or section breaks. (