Transcript How to Create an Annotated bibliography

HOW TO CREATE AN
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Lejeune & C. Carroll 2013
WHAT IS AN
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?
A
bibliography is a list of citations for
sources (books, articles, databases, etc.)
used in a research paper or project.
 An
annotation is a summary and/or
evaluation of a resource.
 Put
them together and you have an
annotated bibliography, in which each
citation is followed by a brief descriptive
and evaluative paragraph.
WHY SHOULD I DO AN
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?
To learn more about your topic!

Prepares you for a research project
by examining each source carefully
 Broadens
the base of your research and
gives you a good perspective on the
issues that surround your topic
 Helps
you formulate a thesis because you
learn what is available on your topic
FOUR STEPS IN THE PROCESS
1.
2.
3.
4.
Locate a variety of sources, including books,
databases, articles, interviews, etc., that may
contain useful information on your topic.
Briefly examine these resources and
choose those that are reliable, relevant, and
contain a variety of perspectives on your topic.
Create a citation for each source you’ve
chosen, using the correct style as assigned by
your teacher (MLA, APA, etc.).
Write a concise annotation for each source
that summarizes & evaluates its usefulness.
Each annotation should be about 3+ sentences
or 100–200 words.
YIKES! AN ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY LOOKS
REALLY COMPLICATED!
It’s not so hard once you
know what you’re doing.
Let’s look at the process
one step at a time.
1. LOCATE A VARIETY OF SOURCES
Find both print and online sources. Be sure
to record bibliographic information as you go
along.
 Conduct interviews in person or by
email of content experts, such as
university professors or historians.
 Find archival images and videos of
your event.
 Make sure your print sources are from a
reliable publisher, use authoritative online
databases, and carefully evaluate the source
of free websites.
 Be wary of websites with no author or
credentials listed.

2. EXAMINE THE SOURCES &
CHOOSE THE BEST ONES


Select information from authoritative
sources, such as universities or
scholarly publications.
Make sure the source is really relevant to
your topic as well as current and not out-ofdate.
Select sources with a variety of
 perspectives on your topic.


Verify that the information is valid, wellresearched, and supported by evidence.
3. CREATE
A CITATION FOR EACH SOURCE
 You
may use
Noodle Tools to
create your annotated bibliography
online.
 MLA
Bibliography Guidelines are
available on your web guide and as a
handout in the library.
 BUT--remember
that YOU are ultimately
responsible for the correct formatting of
your citations.
EXAMPLE MLA WORKS CITED LIST
Castro, Fidel. Second Declaration of Havana, 1962.
Internet Modern History Sourcebook. Web. 25
Nov. 2013.
Horvitz, Leslie Alan and Christopher Catherwood.
Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide.
New York: Facts on File, 2006. Print.
"Simón Bolívar." Historic World Leaders. Gale,
1994. World History in Context. Web.
5 Dec. 2013.
What do you notice about the format of these
citations?
4. WRITE A CONCISE ANNOTATION
FOR EACH SOURCE
Include as many of these as you & your teacher wish:
Describe the content & purpose of the source.
 Discuss how the source is relevant to your topic
and how it helped your research.
 Identify whether it is a primary or secondary
source. Tertiary sources should be kept to a
minimum (Wikipedia is not acceptable on
academic bibliographies).
 Evaluate the background/authority of the author.
 Comment on the source’s quality and how/
why it helped you.

HOW
DO
I
FIND THE INFORMATION FOR
MY ANNOTATION?
 Read
the Table of Contents and peruse
the Index of a book or database.
 Read
the back cover or inside flap of a
book, or the executive summary of an
article.
 Flip
through or skim the source to see
what kind of information it contains and
how it is organized.
HOW
DO
I
FIND THE INFORMATION FOR
MY ANNOTATION? CONT’D
 Read the Introduction, section
headings, and one or two excerpts
relevant to your topic.
 Find a description of the author and
evaluate his/her credentials.
 For a website, go to the Home page
and look for an Author or About Us
link.
EXAMPLE
ANNOTATION
Horvitz, Leslie Alan and Christopher Catherwood.
Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide.
New York: Facts on File, 2006. Print.
This encyclopedia provides an alphabetic listing
of articles that discuss the human rights
violations in various countries of the world and
the leaders who have been involved in human
rights abuses. One of the authors teaches at the
Univ. of Cambridge. This source includes both
secondary (articles) and primary sources such as
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It
gave me a good overview of the various human
rights issues in Nicaragua and Noriega’s role in
them.
HANG
IN THERE—YOU’RE
ALMOST FINISHED!

Alphabetize your citations.

Check for errors in MLA format.

Proofread the whole thing.
IF
YOU HAVE FOLLOWED THESE
STEPS, YOU’VE CREATED AN
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Congratulations!
You’ve just learned a very useful skill
that will assist you in your
future academic pursuits.