04 Aug Annotated Bibliographies on Author Melissa Fay Greene

Annotated Bibliographies on Author Melissa Fay Greene

You should already be familiar with works cited lists, or lists of sources summarized, paraphrased, or directly quoted in a paper. However, you may not know as much about a close cousin to the works cited list: a bibliography. Unlike the works cited page, a bibliography is not limited to the sources you end up using in the actual research paper. Instead, a bibliography is a list of ALL sources you consulted while conducting research.

So what is an Annotated Bibliography? If a bibliography is a list of sources that have been used to research a topic, then an annotated bibliography is a bibliography that includes annotations.

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation of the sources used to research a topic. Annotations are written in paragraph form and address the following three aspects of a source: a summary of the information it provides, an analysis of the reliability of the information, and a reflection on the source’s value to your research project.

Here are some questions answered by each part of the annotation:

The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to learn about your topic and keep yourself organized as you gather and study sources. In addition, an annotated bibliography will help you to formulate a thesis statement. Because you will better understand your topic, you will be able to create a thoughtful and informed thesis.

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

It is now time to create an annotated bibliography for your chosen topic. Here are some rules you will want to follow when creating your annotated bibliography:

• Follow MLA formatting when setting up the document: 1″ margins, double-spacing, Times New Roman, 12-point font, four-line heading, header with last name and page numbers, centered title. Please review the information in the Regionalism unit if you have forgotten how to set up a documents according to MLA format.
• Follow current MLA formatting for each citation. Please see the Purdue OWL, linked in the sidebar, if you have forgotten how to create MLA-formatted citations.
• Annotate in paragraph form. Include a summary, assessment, and reflection in each annotation. You may choose to use three paragraphs for each annotation, one paragraph for each of the three aspects of the source you need to address.
• Put annotations in alphabetical order by author’s last name.

Please view the following video, which will show you how to set up and format your annotated bibliography so that it follows MLA standards throughout. Click on the on the placeholder below to view the video in a new screen.

To view a sample annotated bibliography, check out the example in the sidebar. Since you are required to have at least five sources, you will have at least five citations with annotations in your bibliography. Please see the rubric linked in the sidebar for more information about how your assignment will be graded.