Annotated Bibliography and MLA

Annotated Bibliography

By Elizabeth Yarrington

What is an annotated bibliography?

​An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents.

Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words they can be more but must be AT LEAST 150) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation.

The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.

Multiple Choice

An annotated bibliography is a.....

• works cited page

• a works cited page with a summary/evaluation of the information

• a research paper with credible sources

• 150 word summary

Annotated Bibliography

Summarize: A summary of the information- you summarize what you used and the main idea of the information

​Evaluate: Was the article useful? Is the article credible? What makes them credible?

​Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

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Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is included in the three things needed to write an annotated bibliography?

• Tell the plot of a book related to the topic
• A summary of information from you source
• Give three citations that summarize the main idea of your source
• Give a short bibliography about your source

Multiple Choice

The purpose of an annotated bibliography is

• Summarize sources

• Summarize an article or sources

• Summarize and evaluate sources

• evaluate sources from a library

Why an annotated bibliography?

Because it's better than writing a paper, jk.

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​Because it organizes your research and forces you to critically think about the information that you are selecting.

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It's easy to find information, like the article from Actively Learn said, but it's more difficult to actually USE the information especially in an essay. ​

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It proves you've done research not just answered questions with the first thing that came up.​

Multiple Choice

Why is it important to do an annotated bibliography?

• It proves that you have done some valid research to back up your arguments and claims and it proves that the resources you used are useful and relevant to your topic.

• The annotated bibliography is more formal than a works cited page, and at this level, you want to be as formal as possible in your writing.

• Annotated bibliographies ensure that you do not plagiarize other authors in your paper.

Structure

• Humanities and English courses use MLA.

  • MLA citations are alphabetical

  • ​Use Citation Machine or OWL Purdue (click on the link) to make your citation

• The citation goes ON TOP of the annotation. ​

Multiple Choice

In what order do you list your annotated bibliography entries?

• Chronological Order
• Alphabetical Order
• However I please
• Order I accessed the documents

Multiple Choice

T/F:

The annotation goes on TOP of the citation

• True

• False

Poll

I can identify the parts of an annotated bibliography.

• Yasss.

• Maybe.

• No.

Draw

Circle the citation. Draw a square around the annotation

Notice....

The hanging indent

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The space between everything. You should have space between each paragraph and citation.

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12 point, Times New Roman​

​Annotated Bibliography

• Alphabetically organized

• 12 point, Times​ New Roman

• Space between each citation/annotation

• ​Annotations are a summary, an evaluation, and a reflection on how the information is relevant to your research.

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Links to Help

​Annotated OWL Website

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Cornell University Annotated Bibliography ​

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OWL MLA Guidelines ​