An annotated bibliography is a thorough, yet concise, summary of a source in formal,
academic writing. Annotated bibliographies are designed to help you write your
academic research paper by making you familiar with source material related to your
topic. For Annotated Bibliography 1, you will review one source. Consult the
Information Literacy Modules on how to find credible sources.
Annotated bibliography to help you critically read assignments as well as practice
identifying main ideas, contexts, and quotations. Additionally, it will help you remember
significant information and even generate writing you can use in future drafts. Whether
done informally or, as here, formally, annotated bibliographies are integral to the
reading and writing process. Each annotation will 150-200 words.
See Everyone’s an Author Chapter 24 for examples of annotated bibliographies.
Each annotated bibliography will contain the following information.
CITATION:
Write the correctly formatted citation in MLA style at the top of the page. See Everyone’s
an Author Chapter 28.
CREDIBILITY OF SOURCE:
Give the author of the article and his or her credentials. Why would this person or
organization be considered an authoritative source for your topic? What biases might
the author have (if any)? How credible is the publication from an academic standpoint?
*SUMMARY OF THE SOURCE:
Write a fairly extensive summary of the article. Identify its main claim or main point.
Identify also its supporting points. Carefully document the evidence that your author
uses to support his or her claim. Remember to use quotation marks and cite page
numbers when you use language that is not your own. (This will be the main section for
each entry.)
EVALUATE THE USEFULNESS:
Evaluate the usefulness of this source. How does this text affect your thinking? What
data is convincing? What challenges to the claims exist?