The Bibliography

~~Topic~~ DONE!
~~Thesis~~ DONE!
~~Cluster ideas~~ DONE!
~~Preliminary Outline with three main points, two sub points each~~ DONE!

Now that you have a debatable argument and have begun to develop it, you need to start thinking about what you're going to use to support that argument. You'll be expected to do two things with this assignment: 1) Begin research, 2) Begin the Works Cited page in MLA format. Mr. Janes neither can nor will do this for you. You are expected to begin working autonomously now as you will need to for the remainder of the Research Paper unit and in your upcoming post-secondary life. Do not take it personally when if you ask something that is clearly answered here that you're told to USE YOUR RESOURCES.

Do not say you can't - again, that translates as Clearly Are Not Trying. Ask questions NOW, during the presentation of this material.

Annotated Bibliographies
Click here for your sample

Your assignment’s guidelines:

Using the source criteria for your research paper, you will create an annotated bibliography, following the explanation and example as a template. You need to do three (3) things:

Summarize each source as explained and discussed in class.
Assess each source as explained and discussed in class.
Reflect on each source as explained and discussed in class.

- ALSO -
Each entry will be in correct MLA format.
The final draft will be saved as works cited to your portfolio by the due date.
You will cite and annotate a minimum (more OK) of four (4) sources.

Again, Summarize, Assess, Reflect on FOUR (4) sources. Make sure you follow MLA format.

Then upload the finalized document as works cited via Moodle

Definition

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.).

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following:

Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is. You do not necessarily need to read an entire book to summarize it, but you will be expected to spend adequate time to understand its basics. If you simply skim a resource, you will not be able to summarize it, let alone assess or reflect upon it. If you do not put the expected energy into each resource, it will be obvious in your work and will be graded according to what you earned.

For more help, see this handout on paraphrasing sources.

Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is it this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?

For more help, see evaluating resources.

Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

Purpose

To learn about your topic: Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. Just collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you're forced to read each source more carefully. You begin to read more critically instead of just collecting information.

To help you formulate a thesis: Every good research paper is an argument. The purpose of research is to state and support a thesis. So a very important part of research is developing a thesis that is debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated bibliography can help you gain a good perspective on what is being said about your topic. By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you'll start to see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and you'll then be able to develop your own point of view.

To help other researchers: Extensive and scholarly annotated bibliographies are sometimes published. They provide a comprehensive overview of everything that has been and is being said about that topic. You may not ever get your annotated bibliography published, but as a researcher, you might want to look for one that has been published about your topic.

Format

The bibliographic information: See this page for WHAT YOU ARE EXPECTED TO KNOW AND SHOW: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/ This will be discussed in class and the expectation is you will USE THIS RESOURCE when creating your Works Cited page.

See the links at the left side of that page for the specific cases, such as Books, Periodicals, Electronic Sources and Other Common Sources.

Or...

Do you prefer to use an online tool like EasyBib? Great! Use any tool you'd like and copy/paste the results to a Word document as save AS EXPECTED. But remember, you will still be responsible for completing this assignment and the research paper itself AS EXPECTED. Keep this in mind now and for college and beyond as sometimes we think we have it figured out but yet have not bothered to FOLLOW DIRECTIONS and for that, no educator will apologize to you for your disregard.

The annotations: The annotations for each source are written in paragraph form. The lengths of the annotations can vary significantly from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages. The length will depend on the purpose. If you're just writing summaries of your sources, the annotations may not be very long. However, if you are writing an extensive analysis of each source, you'll need more space.

Example

Sample:

Sample (What you write - Do not write the numbers - They're there to guide you.)

1) Heading
2) Title: An Annotated Bibliography
3) Citation #1 (in MLA format)
4) Annotation #1 (summary, assessment and reflection)
5) Citation/Annotation #2
6) Citation/Annotation #3
7) Citation/Annotation #4

(1) Your name
Mr. Janes
English 12
Date

(2) Stem Cell Research: An Annotated Bibliography (working title - can still change over time)

(4 - Summary) This is the annotation of the above source. In this example, I am following MLA guidelines for the bibliographic information listed above. If I were really writing an annotation for this source, I would now be offering a brief summary of what this book says about stem cell research.

(4 - Assessment) After a brief summary, it would be appropriate to assess this source and offer any criticisms of it that you might have. Does it seem like a reliable and current source? Why? Is the research biased or objective? Are the facts well documented? Who is the author? Is she qualified in this subject? Is this source scholarly, popular, some of both?

(4 - Reflection) The length of your annotation will depend on the assignment or on the purpose of your annotated bibliography. After summarizing and assessing, you can now reflect on this source. How does it fit into your research? Is this a helpful resource? Too scholarly? Not scholarly enough? Too general/specific? Since "stem cell research" is a very broad topic, has this source helped you to narrow your topic?

(5)