Purpose: Completing annotated bibliographies demonstrates information literacy s

Purpose: Completing annotated bibliographies demonstrates information literacy skills, critical reading
skills and clear communication abilities. Working on an annotated bibliography allows a student to pursue
research actively, finding sources and engaging with them to create the evaluative summaries; it also
encourages students to look widely in the research literature on the topic to add breadth to the
understanding of the topic.
How to complete the assignment:
• Search for articles through the MCPHS Smart Search. If you can connect through another COF
library or through your home public library or the Boston Public Library, JSTOR is a premier
Humanities database that will help you find sources also.
• Make sure that your source fits the assignment. It should be a scholarly academic article, also called
a critical essay. You should not use a summary or a review of a text. This article should come from a
peer-reviewed academic source.
• Read the article carefully, noting the main points and the evidence that is used in supporting those
points. Consider the author’s point of view and evaluate whether you find this material convincing
and profitable for understanding the literary text.
• Write the annotation, noting the four required elements:
1. The MLA Bibliographic citation for the essay in MLA 9 format,
▪ The annotated bibliography entries should be alphabetized according to the
authors’ last names.
2. The thesis statement of the article which you paraphrase,
3. The main points discussed in the article you have read (use citation for all quotations and
paraphrases that you include), and
4. A statement of whether/how this article could be useful for a student writing an essay.
Another way to think of this component is to consider what contribution this particular
essay makes to understanding the text you’re writing about.
Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry:
Gilligan, Carol. “Looking Back to Look Forward: Revisiting in a Different Voice.” Classics Journal, 2019,
https://classics-at.chs.harvard.edu/classics9-carol-gilligan-looking-back-to-look-forward-revisiting-in-
a-different-voice/.
In this essay, psychologist Carol Gilligan writes about the ideas and ingrained cultural attitudes that she
confronted when writing her book In a Different Voice; she discusses how gender, communication, and
morality converge in a way that frequently reinforces patriarchal attitudes, yet those ideas should be
rethought. Drawing upon multiple psychologists’ work, anecdotal experiences, and textual evidence, she
builds to the idea that an “ethic of care,” which had previously been associated with women in a patriarchal
society, should be rethought to be a human ethic in a democratic system (Gilligan). Ultimately, Gilligan
explores the effects that gendered moralities and communications have on adolescent girls, emphasizing
the need for women’s voices to be expressed and heard. This essay would be useful in an essay on
communication and gender, especially as it relates to rethinking a system designed to silence parts of its
community.
Articles that can be used:
1. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.3366/j.ctt3fgtnm.10.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A606f62ff98cf089b4c2137ecaa0a723d&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&origin=&initiator=search-results&acceptTC=1
2. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/7038/703873550029/html/