GUIDELINES FOR ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

DUE February 24

Your Annotated Bibliography should include 18 sources.  Excluded from this list should be the following:

            1.  Book Reviews

            2. Articles about how to teach a certain text

            3. Articles from a casebook on your work that are identified as a certain approach by the editor

            4. Articles written, for the most part, before 1980 

            5. Articles from Contemporary Literary Criticism

            6. Articles from The Explicator

            7. Articles fewer than ten pages in length

            8. Your chosen text

Your Annotated Bibliography will be a significant resource for you.  Consequently, you should make your annotations as specific as you can.  If you have a copy of the book or article,

            1. summarize the argument of the essay or book

            2. identify the type of criticism you think is being practiced

            3. evaluate the article (*do you agree or disagree?  Do you think it will prove helpful to your research?). 

These steps need not be done in this order or as discrete steps; the summary may overlap the evaluation and should definitely support the identification.

Summarizing does not mean that you say, “This article (book, author) says that Heathcliff’s changing circumstances in Wuthering Heights prove that the novel has a Marxist agenda.”  How does the author PROVE this statement?  You have not told your reader or yourself how this statement is supported.  You also should not write, “This essay talks about the relationship of mothers and their children.”  What does the author SAY about these relationships?

If you have ordered the book and/or article and it has not yet arrived, indicate why you think the book/article will be useful.  What in the description or abstract made you want to consult it?

Each entry should be between 2 and 6 sentences, should be both informative and evaluative, and should take the form indicated below.

Festa-McCormick, Diana.  “Emma Bovary’s Masculinization.”  Gender and Literary Voice.  Ed.  Janet Todd.  New York:  Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc.  1980.  223 – 235. Print.  Festa-McCormick argues that Emma Bovary’s behavior is more masculine than feminine.  She acts, which is considered a masculine trait, rather than reflects, which more frequently characterizes feminine behavior.  Emma takes control of her situation rather than waiting for others to control her.  I’m not sure I agree with her, but she uses feminist theory—more specifically gender theory—to support her argument.

Notice that the entire entry is double-spaced and that the notation begins IMMEDIATELY after the bibliographical information.  DO NOT GO TO THE NEXT LINE TO BEGIN YOUR ANNOTATION.

All entries are alphabetized by the authors’ or editors’ last names.  Do not number your entries.

Please make sure that you consult your (or the latest) MLA Guide for the correct format of your individual entries.  Book entries differ in format from articles in collections; journal entries differ from book entries; on-line resources differ from print journals (you may treat a PDF as a print source, if you'd like).  Make sure that you have used the appropriate format for each entry.  Also, make sure you cite page numbers for any direct quotes or paraphrases.  Summaries need not include page numbers.