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- Info
Annotated Bibliography
Annotated Bibliographies
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A bibliography is a list of resources (books, journal articles, periodical articles, websites, interviews, studies, etc) you've put together for your academic project. An annotation is a short summary and/or evaluation. It's a note added to something.
- That means that an annotated bibliography is a list of all the resources you're using formatting to your citation system's (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc) standards with an annotation beneath each one.
- Many researchers find that annotated bibliographies are useful to help them organize and understand the resources they've gathered and to think about how they plan to use them or have already used them.
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- Researchers often create annotated bibliographies at the beginning of a large research project and update it as they gather their sources.
- An annotated bibliography can help you sort through a pile of resources as you begin to understand what you'll use and in what ways you'll use certain resources.
- As you go through your writing process, the annotated bibliography continues to be useful so you know when and how you've used your sources. It can also serve as a sort of checklist to make certain you used your resources effectively.
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- Anyone engaged in research can use an annotated bibliography to help him or her through the research process.
- Students are often asked to use annotated bibliographies as a way to demonstrate the research work they've already done and to help make research part of the writing process in the class.
- Teachers often use annotated bibliographies as part of an assignment to help students identify important texts, arguments, writers, and ideas and to create a shared document to use as a changing, updatable record of the research process.
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- Start by double-checking which bibliographic style you should adopt (MLA, APA, etc). This information should be located in your syllabus or your assignment prompt. If you need information about either system, you can click the names above to be taken to our virtual workshops on the systems. Help on the Chicago system can be located here (links to Purdue's OWL).
- Once you've determined which system you are to use, write all of the entries using the style.
- Unless your instructor gives you specific reasons, the annotation below the bibliographic entry should contain these three components: it should summarize, situate, and evaluate the source.
- When summarizing, your annotation should briefly outline the major aims of the resource. What is this resource exploring? How is it organized? Who is its intended audience?
- When situating, your annotation should explain how the resource compares to other sources in your bibliography. Is this a major resource on the topic? What does it do that other sources might not do for you?
- When evaluating, your annotation should explain how your will apply this resource to your own project. What parts of this resource will be used for your paper? How?
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- Here's a sample annotated resource:
Richardson, Ruth. Death, Dissection, and the Destitute. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2000.
Traces the causes and effects of the 1832 Anatomy Act in Britain. Intended for a university audience. Organized in three sections: the body (contextualizes the corpse socially, medically, and commercially); the Act (explores parliamentary debate according to the Act); and the aftermath (long-term effects of the Act). Richardson is a respected scholar in the field (see her earlier work A Dissection of the Anatomy Act). As such, using her helps me better represent the current academic conversation on this topic. The most interesting portion for my project will be Richardson's analysis of the cultural representation of the body in the first chapter, which is entitled "The Corpse and Popular Culture."
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