An annotated bibliography is a list of bibliographic citations to books, websites, articles, and documents that includes a descriptive and evaluative paragraph for each text. The purpose of the annotation (that is the word used for the evaluative paragraph) is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
This assignment asks you to create an annotated bibliography for five sources. Your sources will be three websites and two books from UHD’s library. Encyclopedias do not count for this assignment, unless it is a specialized encyclopedia that offers an in-depth article. The book we are reading together, South Side, does not count for the assignment.
Annotated bibliographies are similar to abstracts (an abstract is a one-paragraph summary typically found before a scholarly article) in that they summarize the information of the text. However, abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles. Annotations can be descriptive and critical; they can explain and/or evaluate many things, including the type of source, the author’s point of view, authority or credentials, and argument.
We will call this bibliography a “critical annotated bibliography” because it critically evaluates material in order to assess its usefulness for a particular purpose: our second essay.
As a researcher, you are becoming an expert on your topic: you are developing the ability to explain the content of your sources, assess their usefulness, and share this information with others who may be less familiar with them. One goal of this annotated bibliography is to promote your critical reading of sources.
While preparing this assignment, treat the websites as you would any other academic source: print out important texts, mark them up, noting useful information and taking notes. One of the challenges of doing web research is that websites change and can disappear. Printing out documents is absolutely essential for a successful paper that does not involve a lot of wasted time searching for info you had at another time. The important thing is to keep a record; if you don’t use printouts, take a screenshot and save to a notes app; what matters is that you are developing good note-taking and record keeping habits now.
In order to develop useful annotations, use the following questions. Each of your annotations should be about one page long and one or two paragraphs.
What type of website is it and what is the site about? Is it governmental? Corporate? NGO? For profit? Educational? Political?
What is the specific purpose of the website? This information is often found on the website itself, but sometimes it is inferred and you will have to assert a purpose based on the material on the site. Many websites have multiple purposes. For example, the NAACP has a comprehensive website with many interesting articles on education; however, the purpose of the website is not exclusively education. It is much broader than one social issue. Therefore, you will distinguish among the various purposes one website may have. Often, it will be important to identify a general purpose and then more closely examine a section of the website relevant to your work.
For a book, briefly summarize the scope of the material in the book and then identify and focus on the chapter that appears to be most promising.
Who is the intended audience for the work? Some of the most useful websites are run by professional organizations for their members. For example, universities, elementary school principals, teachers, etc. all have professional organizations that are active in the discussions and debates on education. Much of the material foster discussion within the profession, but is also relevant and available to the general population, including university students who seek a better understanding of certain issues. For books, assess the level of sophistication. Is it for academic specialists? Is it for especially for students? This info will emerge from skimming the table of contents, the introduction, and the foreword, if there is one.
What is the background and credibility of the author of the particular text you are evaluating? Sometimes websites will not provide the author of a specific section. If they don’t, then you must assume the text speaks for the website/organization/company and analyze it accordingly. At other times, websites will provide the specific author(s) name and credentials. It is important to acknowledge these distinctions, especially when the authors have particular expertise, experience, political agendas, etc. For example, on the website for the PTA, there is a document by researchers from Harvard University. The authors’ affiliation with a university, as opposed to a money-making entity, indicates that, like you, the authors wish to advance knowledge. Therefore, it could be particularly useful to your work. It is sometimes necessary to do a brief web search on an author in order to assess their credibility.
How current is the text? Sometimes it is difficult to tell if a website is regularly updated. Sometimes parts of a website will be updated, but not others. Other clues include links to dated newsletters, dates of embedded newspaper articles, and the issues that the website headlines. Just because information is five or more years old, does not mean it isn’t important. Currency is less important when dealing with an historical issue; however, debates on issues change with time, so it is always important to be aware of currency.
What makes this text useful for an academic essay? What does it excel at? For example, there may be numerous websites that discuss problems with coffee production. What makes the one you include in this bibliography worthwhile? Does the site provide useful evidence for a claim you are thinking about? Does it contain helpful graphs or charts? Does it zero in on a question you have? Does it provide background info you might use in your essay? Be specific here. Since our goals are academic and we wish to further the knowledge of our society, we will want to focus our efforts on websites that offer thoughtful and credible information along with in-depth analysis—not just superficial reporting.
The following link takes you to the webpage of the UHD library and tells you how to present the bibliographic information accurately. Use the helpful list on this page to create your own entry:
http://www.uhd.edu/library/guides/mla–workscited.pdf
You may also wish to use websites like citationmachine.net or easybib.com
As you work on your Critical Annotated Bibliography, you should be focused on a topic of interest to explore. Please post your general subject for your web research; beneath your topic, please list at least two good websites that address that subject along with a brief description of each site and its purpose. Why is it useful for your research? Post your response by Monday, March 7th
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