Your second paper will be an annotated bibliography, which is an alphabetical list of research sources (6 to 8). In addition to bibliographic data (APA citation), an annotated bibliography provides a concise summary of each source and some assessment of its value or relevance in regards to your chosen topic. It’s like a Works Cited you may have done in Writ 101/102 but in APA it will be referred to as a Bibliography. You may have done an annotated bib for Writ 102.

You will use these sources from this annotated bib in your next two papers (#3 & #4).

Your sources will be from academic and professional journal articles (published within the last five years if possible and if this is not possible please give an explanation as to why you felt it important to include in your research). So yes you can use older sources but explain why you felt it important to include them.

The paper will be in APA format please view the video on creating an annotated bibliography in APA. Make sure you read, “Writing an Annotated Bibliography.” The annotated bibliography was designed for you to learn about the literature in your discipline. In project #3, the Literature Review, you will choose four sources from your Annotated Bibliography to discuss thoroughly in essay form and in your research prospectus (project #4) you will continue to draw upon your research sources. Therefore, the more work you invest now, the more prepared you will be in developing your remaining projects.

This may be the most time-consuming of all the papers but after you complete it then you will use those same sources throughout.

Your annotated bib will consist of an introduction (which you will of course compose after all of your research). Then each source will be cited in proper APA format followed by a summary and an evaluation.

1. Introduction:

1) Focus on orienting the reader to your topic/research question and the context surrounding it, 2) inform the reader of the kinds of sources included in the bibliography and why you chose them, and 3) inform the reader of the kinds of sources excluded from the bibliography and why.

This is where you will state your research topic or question. After researching, and you may use more than six to eight sources before finalizing this amount; you may adjust and narrow your topic, which is natural after gaining scholarship of your topic. Be sure to notice terminology used in your field of study. By the end of the semester you too will be using this same terminology with ease and authority.

After the introduction, you will cite each source in APA format followed by a summary and an evaluation. (So there is one introduction for the entire annotated bib, but a summary and evaluation for each cited source.)

2. Summary:

Paragraph one:

You will briefly: 1) restate the main argument or thesis (research question or hypothesis) of the source. 2) State the methods of investigation, and its main conclusions.

Remember that identifying the argument of a source is different from describing or listing its contents. Rather than listing contents, an annotation should account for why the contents are there. (See the document “Writing an Annotated Bibliography,” for examples and details of this.) What was the author’s purpose and what was he attempting to prove?

Remember that summaries do not contain quotes.

Evaluation:

This is where you will state the relevance and the value of a source in regards to your research topic/question. You will assess the source’s contribution to the research on your topic.

You will want to identify articles as well as to critically evaluate them and to identify gaps/flaws/limitations. Use critical reasoning (see video “What is critical thinking” when evaluating articles. From the article, “Writing and Annotated Bibliography:”

Are you interested in the way the source frames its research question or in the way it goes about answering that question (its method)? Does the source make new connections or open up new ways of seeing a problem? How effective is the method of investigation?
Does the source gather and analyze a particular body of evidence that you want to use? How good is the evidence?
How do the source’s conclusions bear on your own investigation? How can you integrate the source into your own research and writing?
You may want to review the documents in supplemental reading: “Determining Whether Sources are Academic,” “What is an Academic Source?” “What is a Scholarly Article?” and “How to Summarize a Journal Article.”

These journal articles can get tedious. I usually tell students to read the conclusion first to get an idea of the authors’ research and findings.

The annotated bibliography will mostly likely be six to eight pages without the title page. You can always use more pages in your own notes.

Length requirement: 6 to 8 pp. (excluding title page). This paper IS a reference list — simply annotated — so you of course do not need a reference list with it.