Basic Guidelines
Each annotated bibliography should have 8-10 sources. One source must be a book. Three to five sources must come from a journal or other academic publication and should be accessed using the library databases. The remaining sources can be accessed via the Internet, but you are limited to using sites for reputable publications or that have an established editorial staff. Refrain from using blogs or sites run by individuals. Sites that end with .gov or .edu are okay, too.
Each of the 8-10 sources on your bibliography needs to be accompanied by a 200-250 annotation, or summary, of the source that you have read. Do not copy someone else’s description or use the summary provided by the publication or website. These words must be your own.
Step 1: Choose a topic
Choose one of the following broad topics to help guide your research. Once you have done some reading, you will be able to refine your topic, choosing a particular point or specific subject to focus on.
• Racism / Racial Identity
• Immigration
• Cyber Bullying / Online Security
• Feminism
• Economy
• LGBTQIA Issues
• Environment
• Medicine / Science
Step 2: Identify your sources
Don’t just take the first 8-10 sources you find. Read through a couple (in the case of a book, check out a chapter), and look for a way to narrow your topic. Pay attention to what catches your interest. Once you have found something specific to focus on, start looking for other sources (and other types of sources) that relate to that topic. Here’s an example of a narrow topic for a couple of the options listed above. These topics are up for grabs. Feel free to choose one, but by no means feel limited to these options.
Broad Topic Specific Topic
Immigration Syrian Refugee Crisis
Environment Fracking
Feminism Funding for Planned Parenthood
Step 3: Create a Bibliography
Before you really settle in to do your in-depth reading of the 8-10 sources that you have chosen, get all of the information required to create a MLA-formatted works-cited entry for each one. Once you’re got your works cited entries created, arrange them in alphabetical order.
Step 4: Read Your Sources
Read the source carefully. In the case of a book or any source over 30 pages, read a chunk (like a chapter) that is big enough to give you a good idea as to its relevance to your topic. Take notes. Underline things. Write down questions you might have or ideas that occur to you. Look up unfamiliar words and write down their definitions. Be an active reader.
This process is called annotation, by the way.
Step 5: Annotate Your Bibliography
Look at the annotations you made as you read. See what you can pull from those to help you write 200-250 words about that source. This paragraph that you write should be added to the bibliography, following the works cited entry for that source.
BIBLIOGRAPHY + ANNOTATIONS = ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
It’s That Simple.
The most difficult part of this assignment is the time commitment. So get started early and take your time.
***VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION***
This often proves to be a very difficult assignment for students, and it shouldn’t be. To help make things a little easier, you have up to three tries. If you don’t quite get it the first time around, I’ll give it back with comments and let you try again.