ECC 510 Fall 2020

Annotated Bibliography
Due Date: See Syllabus

1.0 Assignment Description

The purpose of the annotated bibliography is to begin the search process for the literature review
in a systematic way. This assignment helps candidates to identify quality sources, evaluate and
describe sources, practice APA 7 style, and compile sources for use in their research proposal.
Candidates will find, evaluate and describe a minimum of 5 (maximum of 8) current,
high-quality resources related to their research topic. Sources should be selected based on
relevance to the topic, scholarly intent, and must provide more than a cursory view of the topic.

Sources can be found in hard copy or online and may include books/book chapters, ebooks,
scholarly/peer-reviewed journal articles, organization or institution web sites/documents,
research studies, government documents, interviews, or any other sources deemed to be of a high
quality and relevant to the research topic. Candidates will compile an annotated bibliography to
highlight the quality of their sources and explain how the sources contribute to the candidate’s
understanding of the topic. The key headings and formatting to include in this annotated
bibliography assignment are:

● Title Page
Formatted in APA 7 style. See:
http://library.cityu.edu/howto/use-apa-citation-style.aspx

● Research Topic
One paragraph to explain your topic. Describe the phenomena or problem you intend to
study and why you think this is an important topic to study. This can be in the format of
the problem statement or questions. All resources in this assignment should relate to this
topic.

● Key Search Words for Topic

Provide a list of the key words you used to search for resources about your topic.

● Annotated Bibliography
o Include resources from a variety of sources (including journals and other
scholarly work) written in APA 7 format.
o For each annotation, include one or two paragraphs to summarize the most
important points in the article/book/study that is relevant to the topic. Points to
consider: study setting, sample, methodology, key findings, conclusions, and the
author’s theoretical frame of reference or bias. Include at least one direct quote.
You may also compare and/or contrast to other works cited in this assignment or
highlight noted gaps.

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 o Organize the annotated bibliography alphabetically and chronologically.

● References Page (Include all resources in the annotated bibliography using APA 7.)

Annotations must be candidates’ own work. Please do not copy and paste abstracts from
sources, as this constitutes plagiarism and may be given zero points. Citations must be for
sources that candidates have obtained in full text, whether they are in hard copy or available
online. Encyclopedias (such as Wikipedia), dictionaries, and other reference materials may be
used to gain an understanding of the topic, providing the information is verified and contributes
to the scholarly work. These types of resources will not be considered in the minimum of 5
(maximum of 8) resources but will be considered as additional resources.

2.0 APA 7 Quick Guidelines

● Refer to the CityU Library site for quick guidelines:
https://library.cityu.edu/howto/apa-writing/use-apa-style/

3.0 Assessment Rubric

See course website