Composition II - English 1020 

Research Paper Preview 

Annotated Bibliography 
Due Monday, November 4th 
 
Your homework this weekend is to do some exploring! I want you to read ​and read​ ​and read 
on a topic(s) that is interesting to you! These topics will lead to a research question, which will 
drive our research and thus our research papers. The final paper will take an IMRaD format 
(Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion).  
 
Ultimately, this project will require you to engage in both primary and secondary research. This 
weekend's readings will contribute to the ​secondary​ research portion of the project, and as 
such, you will document your readings in the form of an ​annotated bibliography​. The 
bibliography must have ​at least 10 entries. 
 
The purpose of our primary research (to come later) will be to measure people’s perceptions, 
beliefs, or attitudes, which we will contextualize within other information (secondary research).  
 
To begin, you must start by seeing what information exists out there on your topic, before you 
can know for sure what perceptions/beliefs/attitudes are relevant or interesting. 
 
Make sure that you are reading a mix of different kinds of sources and attempt to use mostly 
sources seeking to inform more than persuade. Wikipedia is a great place to start and you may 
include that as 1 of your 10+ entries; however, your other sources should be relatively credible. 
You may read only the abstract of scientific journal articles for this stage of the research (no 
more than 5 abstracts may be used this way).  
 
The bibliography WILL include entries that refer to readings that you decide are not pertinent to 
your topic after all - and that’s OK! You want to include that the source is or isn’t pertinent in 
your notes under the entry.  
 
PRO TIP: save a copy of all sources on your google drive in case it becomes pertinent 
later 
 
Helpful tips on finding a topic: 
 
You will be working with this topic for most of the rest of the semester - make sure that you are 
working on a topic that really interests you!  
 
Don’t box yourself into a topic too early. If one reading gets you interested in a different topic 
or a related topic - go with it! You will receive credit for all entries regardless of if they are on 
your final topic or not. 
 
Don’t wait to get started! Start reading as soon as possible. 
 
Start with a general topic in mind and develop a more specific topic as you explore.  
 
Helpful tips on finding credible sources: 
 
Composition II - English 1020 

Use reputably published/authored sources that are either current or from whatever time is 
relevant to the topic. Current can mean different things depending on your topic. For example, 
if you are looking at the details of the evidence in the impeachment proceedings against 
President Trump, any source more than a few months old is probably irrelevant; however, if 
you are comparing the impeachment proceedings against President Trump with those against 
President Nixon - then you might be reading things that are decades old.  
 
How to make an annotated bibliography: 
 
For our purposes, an annotated bibliography is basically a works cited page with pertinent 
notes for each entry. Refer to our materials on the google classroom from last unit on how to 
make works cited entries. Now, ​why​ you are making the bibliography and ​what​ academic 
discipline you are in will determine exactly what information is required. For this assignment, 
you want a ‘quick summary’ that will remind you of the main information contained in the 
source as well as a note on whether or not you think that the source will be relevant to your 
research. 
 
You will create the bibliographic entries exactly the same as on your works cited page from the 
last paper, but add your notes in paragraph form after each entry, aligned with the hanging 
indent. Remember that the entries should be in alphabetical order by the first word of each 
entry. You also title it “Bibliography” not “Works Cited”: