Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Frequently Asked Questions on Annotated Bibliography (compiled from Ms. Clarks English classes)
Can I have more than 4 secondary sources?
Yes of course. Its better to have more to work with than struggle to find secondary source support later on in the
writing process.
Do I have to use everything I write in my Annotated Bibliography in my essay?
No. The research process might yield more information than you can fit into your essay. Its okay if you dont use
every single quote you pulled from the article and you might not use all of your sources if you have more than 4.
Generally I dont cut out information from my Annotated Bibliographies, I just dont always include all of it in my
essays.
What does Annotated Bibliography mean?
An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation; a bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, web sites,
newspapers, etc.) one has used to research a topic. Thus, an annotated bibliography is a list of sources that includes
summary and evaluation.
How detailed to I have to be?
Be as detailed as you possibly can be because the work you put in now will only help you on your essay later. Please
stop using nonsense words like: things, stuff, significant, good, really good, key, useful, vital, etc. Be specific. Just
writing this source is good because it has significant key quotations for support means nothing.
Do I have to do an Annotated Bibliography?
Yes. Are you serious?
Can I use the web to find my non-scholarly journal articles?
You can use the web to help develop your understanding of the arguments that surround your research question for
background knowledge, but all of the secondary sources that appear on your Annotated Bibliography must come
from Academic/Peer Reviewed/Scholarly articles or books (PPLD: Academic Search Premiere, Literature Resource
Center; JSTOR; Library books).
Whats the deal with MLA style?
Check out MLA style on the Online Writing Lab at Purdue:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/ and https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
For help creating your summary and evaluation responses, refer to the original yellow packet with the examples.
You may also choose to follow these sentence-by-sentence guides (the information available in the secondary sources may
dictate your construction of your paragraphs):
Example
A
Summary
Paragraph
Evaluation
=
Assessmen
t
&
Reflection
3rd Person Present tense (you might slip into 1st person in 1 or 2 sentences at most remember,
academic writing avoids 1st person)
In this paragraph, you will need to explain to me and your peers how you anticipate using this source in
your essay. In order to do this, refer to your thesis and your research questions and talk about how this
source fulfills certain information goals/needs that you have.
You may even want to talk about what you see as the weaknesses and how you intend to consciously and
critically work despite those weaknesses (that is, it the text too biased? too short to include all of the
complications? too personal? and so on). In other words, you are doing a lot of thinking about the facts and
information surrounding your topic before you start to write. This can be as short as two sentences and as
long as six sentenceswhatever you need to clearly articulate your understanding of how the text relates to
the project at hand.
A warning: The process of writing this paragraph tends to also highlight the weaknesses in your own line of
thinking, showing that you might be bringing certain biases or understandings to the text. Please do not
fight against that discovery process. It is better to start to transform your thinking about a topic early in the
process and not fight against what the materials are saying rather than doing so later in the process. I would
recommend using this process as part of your own discovery and invention instead of walking into the
project thinking that you have your topic and argument already figured out and all you have to do is
support it. Remember you can also refute the source in your paper and use quotes from it to address the
potential opposing arguments.
Example:
This seems to suggest that Hawthorne, while not a political activist necessarily, was responding to the life
and times of his culture. Although actually writing about the world of the past, Hawthornes story showed
his deep concern for justice and peace within his own lifetime
Consider these questions when assessing your source and writing the critique:
Was the research question well framed and significant to my research question/thesis?
How well did the authors relate the research question to the existing body of knowledge?
Did the article make an original contribution to the existing body of knowledge?
Was the theoretical framework for the study adequate and appropriate?
Has the researcher communicated clearly and fully?
Is there a better source that is similar to find answers to the research question?
(Occasionally you might consider) Did the writer take into account differing social and cultural
contexts?