Annotation and Works Cited Page Assignment

Submit by February 14, 2018

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and other resources. Each
citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph: the annotation. The purpose
of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources
cited. Annotations are usually about 150 words.
Annotations vs. Abstracts
Abstracts are the descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal
articles or in subscription databases. Annotations, on the other hand, are descriptive and
critical; they discuss the author's point of view, clarity, appropriateness of expression,
authority, etc.
The Process
Creating an annotated bibliography calls for the application of a variety of intellectual skills:
concise writing, succinct analysis, synthesis, and informed library research. You will be
searching for and selecting electronic databases, websites, scholarly journal articles, and books
from which to gather information relevant to a selected topic. You will create citations for these
resources using the American Psychological Association (APA) or Modern Language
Association (MLA) format. You will write concise annotations that summarize the central theme
and scope of the websites, articles, and books. These annotations should include one or more
sentences that:
1. Evaluate the authority, background, and education of the author(s)
2. Comment on the intended audience. For whom was it written (general public/any reader,
subject specialists, college students)? What skill level or education level must the reader have?
3. Compare or contrast this work with another you have cited
4. Discuss how this work explains your selected topic

Information About and Examples of Annotations

There is more information and several examples of annotated bibliographies on the course website and in the
Citation Exercise. Go to the following websites for more information and sample annotated bibliographies:

1. http://dante.udallas.edu/edu3327/annotated_bibliography.htm

2. http://dante.udallas.edu/edu3327/sample_projects/list.htm

3. http://dante.udallas.edu/edu3327/Spring_2018/Annotation_Exercise.pdf

ASSIGNMENT: To receive preliminary feedback prior the midterm submission date on

the annotated bibliography portion of your Research Study Portfolio, please upload – to
the Annotation Assignment Dropbox of E-College – an annotated bibliography offering at
least 2 annotated entries and a Works Cited page in APA or MLA format. Do this NO
LATER than Feb. 14, 2018. Construct entries that are authoritative, relevant, and
credible sources for your research study. They should offer properly formatted
bibliographic citations PLUS well-written annotations. One MUST come from a primary
text and the other can come from the course text or a self-selected source relevant to your
research study.
 The Annotated Bibliography – An Element of the Research Study Portfolio
You will be creating an annotated bibliography of 8-12 sources as part of your research study. I
expect you to submit your first two annotations to make sure that you understand the assignment. The
annotations and Works Cited page submitted by September 6, 2017 will be checked and given back to
you with suggested corrections. You will then have time to correct the way you create annotations and
improve your process for creating a complete annotated bibliography. Be sure to keep a digital file of
all work on your Research Study Portfolio. This will save you time and keep all your work together
and organized and easier for final submission.

IMPORTANT: Credit will not be given for descriptive/evaluative information copied from another
source. In other words, if you find a book review and copy this review to serve as your annotation you
will not receive credit. This is considered plagiarism and your instructor will take further action (see
Academic Honor Code). You will not receive credit if citations are not in a consistent MLA, APA, or
Chicago format. In other words, if you copy a citation from the library’s catalog or from a database and
do not attempt to format the citation in MLA/APA/Chicago format you will not receive credit.

Part 1: Selecting a Worthy Topic

Choose a theory/theorist that will be the focus of your research study. The annotated bibliography is
intended to support this topic. The following are suggestions for finding and choosing a theory/theorist.

1. Carefully examine the Crain text. Evaluate your interest in theorists/theories indicated in the
Table of Contents and Index. If you find something, skim/scan those sections of the chapters.
Note citations in the text and check out references in the back of the book. This will help you
find research articles and primary texts.
2. Examine the course website, especially the Theory Websites and Sample Research Study links
for ideas and bibliographies.
3. Use a web-based academic search engine (such as Google Scholar) or an electronic database to
search for potential sources – at UD, a very useful database to search is EbscoHOST Databases.

Part 2: Locating Scholarly Journal Articles

 Using the list of articles collected in Part 1, select an appropriate electronic database in the UD
Library electronic catalogue (such as EBSCO – which allows you to choose several sources).
Then, use appropriate search strategies to find scholarly journal articles, especially primary
sources and research studies, relevant to your selected theory/theorist. Credit will not be given
for articles that are not from scholarly journals. “Scholarly” is also known as “peer reviewed” or
“refereed.” These can be contrasted with “popular” magazines. These concepts will be
discussed in class. Examine these resources and create a citation and an annotation for each
article.
Part 3: Locating Books

 Using the library’s online catalog (which will be discussed in class) and the list of books
that you created in Part 1, search for primary texts that would help you gather more
information on your selected topic. Try to find 2 primary texts that are most relevant to
your topic. Examine these resources and create a citation and an annotation for each source.
Note: You need not read an entire book. Strategies for evaluating books will be discussed in
class.