Annotated Bibliography Assignment Sheet

CRTW 201

Dr. Fike

The purpose of this assignment is to force you to spread your work out over time. Good research cannot be done at the last minute.

An annotated bibliography combines bibliographic information with short statements (annotations) about your sources. Your annotations should identify the following three things: 1) what the source is about, 2) what it argues (its thesis), and 3) how it will be useful to you in your research paper. Three or more complete sentences are required for each annotation. However, do not write a long paragraph for each source. Keep it short and simple.

You will need to read at least part of each source in order to tell what it is about, what it argues, and how it will be useful to you.

It is NOT appropriate to copy annotations from sources; you must write your own. That is why you are required to submit your annotated bibliography to Turnitin.com.

Do not include Nosich or Wilson on your annotated bibliography.

Here is an example of what an entry and an annotation should look like.

Author. Title of source. Title of container, Other

     contributors, Version, Number, Publisher,

     Publication date, Location.

     Here you type your annotation. Be sure to

     indent the annotation. 

Note that not all sources will need all of the components in the model entry above. Also note that "Location" refers to an item's page numbers, not the geographical place of publication, which is not part of MLA 8th edition documentation style.

Everything in your annotated bibliography should be double spaced. All lines but the first in each entry should be indented one tabulation. Do not let Word insert extra space between lines (if that happens, click the line spacing icon, then remove space). You can also use the "hanging" function under the paragraph icon on your MS Word toolbar to take care of indentations automatically.

Please do not number your sources. Be sure to put them in alphabetical order. Center "Annotated Bibliography" at the top of your document after the header with your name and the course information. Do not center anything else.

Hand write or type your focused topic at the top of page 1.

See the syllabus for the number of sources required for regular and honors sections. Be sure that you have at least one book and at least one refereed journal article on your annotated bibliography. In other words, a bibliography that includes only Web sites will be unsatisfactory.

For how to do entries according to MLA format 8th edition, see our "Guide" on Blackboard, the new edition of Rules for Writers, or the Owl at Purdue Web site (owlatpurdue.com). Bibliographies that are prepared in 7th edition will get marked down.

How many items should be on your bibliography? It must include at least the number of items required for the final paper. However, a works-cited list is really a subset of a bibliography, which is the list of sources that you will initially consult. Not all of those sources will ultimately get cited in your paper. Therefore, it makes sense to have more sources on your bibliography than you are required to use in your actual paper.

You cannot do this assignment at the last minute.