Annotated Bibliography Assignment

You will be producing citations and annotations for a total of five sources that you gather as research for your final 102 paper. These annotations serve a number of purposes. First, they will help to ensure that you have understood and appropriately evaluated your sources. Second, they will act as a way to track your sources and your research process. Finally, they will (we hope!) provide you with some work that you can integrate directly into your final research project. Hopefully, this process will result in you feeling that you are part of a conversation about your topic.  This is your first formal graded assignment for the term and is worth a total of 15% of your final course grade.


Part One: A short (2-3 thoughtful paragraphs) introduction to the annotated bibliography. This introduction should indicate the current state of your research (How far along are you? How is it going? What do you feel you have left to do? Do you have any questions or are you encountering any problems?) and suggest a list of questions that require further consideration, investigation, and/or argumentation. Please take this introduction seriously—I am looking for substance, specificity, and thoughtfulness.  I would suggest doing this last--it will likely be much more clear what you need to say in the intro AFTER you have annotated your research. 

Part Two: For each of your five sources you should have a properly formatted MLA citation, accompanied by a brief description and evaluative annotation of 150-250 words (either one or two paragraphs). Imagine that you are preparing this list of annotations for another student/researcher looking for information about your topic. Provide them with a summary of the source along with the following information:

1. How and where the source was located.
2. The format of the source.
3. The authority/credentials of the author.
4. The currency of the source.
5. The reliability of the information (and a justification for your evaluation of how reliable it is.)
6. Potential biases of the writer or source of publication.
7. An explanation of how the source affects your understanding of the topic.
8. At least one direct quotation from the source, appropriately integrated into your annotation with documentation.


Please keep in mind that your bibliography must: Follow MLA format and citation style (as indicated in your syllabus and in the Hacker book). Include at least 3 articles from scholarly periodicals or publishers. (The other 2 sources can come from credible websites or popular periodicals.) Be organized alphabetically by citation. Be complete, with both parts one and two of the assignment.