BA 4: Annotated Bibliography

Week Four

Annotated Bibliography

For today’s participation, you needed to bring 10 sources to class and a works cited list for those sources.

If you have brought today’s participation, you are already halfway done with BA 4!

Some of you, however, may need to narrow your topic further, which will require gathering more sources.

Why am I doing an Annotated Bibliography?

Almost all disciplines utilize some form of the annotated bibliography;

Learning to evaluate your source material is a crucial skill as a writer and as a student;

Remember that all of the assignments in this course fit together: BA #4 – Annotated Bib with six (6) sources on a

particular research topic (DUE Saturday) Draft 1.1 – Literature Review with eight (8) sources on

your chosen topic (DUE Next Saturday); Draft 2.1 – Classical argument essay

Annotated Bibliography

Source Requirements: - All sources must come from either the TTU databases or the

TTU catalogue.

- The majority of the sources need to be academic journal articles. Only two non-journal (book chapter/ news periodical sources are allowed).

- The sources need to have been published in the last 10-11

years.

- No abstracts or reviews.

If you find a great, reliable source by an expert, you may bring it to me and defend its reliability. I can then approve the source and give you a code for your grader.

BA 4 Assignment Directions: To complete this assignment, prepare an

annotated bibliography. Each entry in an annotated bibliography consists of two elements:

an initial citation in MLA format (The bibliographic citations in your works cited list!)

and a 100 – 150 word evaluation of each source, in which you will evaluate the relevance, accuracy and quality of the source.

BA 4 Assignment Directions: The focus of your annotations should be on

evaluating the quality of the sources, but your evaluation may also include a brief summary of key points of each source’s content.

Your bibliography should contain a minimum of six annotated entries.

Your sources should be scholarly or other reputable or credible articles located through the TTU library databases.

Annotated Bibliography

We’ve had readings in the handbook that discussed annotated bibliographies.

There is also an example BA 4 in the back of your textbook (p.596).

Format your BA 4 like the one in the back of your textbook. Make sure there are clear spaces between sources. 150 word evaluations tend to be more thorough!

Change in assignment directions!

Before beginning the annotated bibliography, write two- three sentences explaining your topic and how it was narrowed.

This will help the grader better evaluate your source choices as well as the viability of your topic.

Correct Citations!

We will be grading the correctness of MLA formatting on citations in both BA 4 and the 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, and 2.2.

Take the time on BA 4 to make them perfect so you get credit for them the rest of the semester!

To create correct MLA citations: Use Chapter 16 in your online handbook!

What should be in each annotation?

The focus of your annotations should be on evaluating the quality of the sources, but your evaluation may also include a brief summary of key points of each source’s content.

The annotations will also need to address relevance and accuracy.

What should be in each annotation?

Begin with a brief (1-3 sentence) summary.(If you do this now, it will prevent you from having to remember some of the specifics

from each article!)

What are the main arguments?

What is the point of this book chapter or article?

What topics are covered?

If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say?

REMEMBER: Summary alone will not suffice for your annotations in this assignment and should not be a substantive part of the annotation. You MUST include points of relevance, accuracy, and quality.

Source Evaluation: Relevance

How and why is this particular source important to your research topic?

Why does this particular source matter?

How closely related is the source to the narrowed topic you are pursuing?

How are you going to use this source in your literature review? - You should be trying to identify potential groups for your

literature review. (Pros and Cons, those for or against, are not valid groups)

- Remember that the literature review on Help Seeking was broken into literature on Prevalence, Predictors, and Barriers. What facets

of the discussion are becoming clear? Which one of those groups could a source fit into?

Source Evaluation - Accuracy Are all of your potential sources reputable?

If you are using journal articles, are all of the journals peer-reviewed? How long has the journal been published? If you are using a book chapter, what can you find out about the book’s publisher?

How accurate and complete is the information in the source?

If you are using a source that conducted a study, what measures did the authors take to ensure accurate data?

How thorough is the bibliography or list of works cited that accompanies the source? Does the author or author’s use information from peer-reviewed sources?

Can you find other sources that corroborate what your source is saying?

Source evaluation: Accuracy

“I found this source through the TTU library, so it is a reputable source.”

THIS RESPONSE, OR ANY VARIATION THEREOF, IS NOT A VALID FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT.

Do not simply say the source is relevant or accurate without verifying the claim. We are analyzing your work just as you are analyzing sources for reliability and validity.

You have to support your claims about reliability, validity, relevance, accuracy, and quality.

Annotations DO NOT NEED direct quotes or paraphrases, so you should have no textual citation in the annotations.

Source Evaluation - Quality Credentials of the publisher or sponsor

Is your source sponsored by a professional organization or academic institution?

Was it published at TTU or Washington State Press? Cambridge? Oxford? Harvard? Any academic institution carries weight, but some University names will lend even more credibility.

Credentials of the author Is your author an “expert” in the field? How many other works

on this subject have they published? What makes them qualified to say what they say?

Use the greatness of the World Wide Web to find out more about your source material and your author.

Review of annotations:

The annotation will need to briefly summarize the source and then focus on accuracy, quality, and relevance.

DO NOT include quotes in the annotations.

DO NOT use “I,” or “my” (These can easily be edited out of the annotation.)

Ex: I think the author’s credibility is sound…

Revised: The author’s credibility is sound…..

Ex: This source is relevant to my topic on animal cancer …..

Revised: This source is relevant to the topic

Group Activity:

As a group, discuss and evaluate the BA 4 in the back of your textbook (596).

Use the grading rubric to determine the grade the annotated bibliography should receive. Why? Be sure to justify the grade against the rubric.

You will to turn in to me a piece of paper with 1) your names, 2) the grade the annotated bibliography merits, 3) an explanation and justification of the grade.

Grading Rubric:

C1— Issue Identification and Focus: Has the student focused on evaluating the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the source? 

C2—Context and Assumptions: Has the student discussed the context in which the source appears?  Has the student considered the assumptions which the author makes about the subject?

C3—Sources and Evidence: Has the student made effective and specific references to the source in order to support his or her discussion of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the source?  Are the citations correct?

C5—Own Perspective: Has the student clearly conveyed his or her opinion of the source’s relevance, accuracy, and quality?

C7—Communication: How effective is the organization of the annotations? How effective is the student's writing at the sentence level?

BA 4: Begin with the sentences that explain your topic to the

graders.

Include the title “Annotated Bibliography” before the first source.

Include a minimum of six sources, and be sure to clearly space between entries.

Work on crafting correct citations and annotations that focus on relevance, accuracy, and quality.

Do not include direct quotes or “I”

Due Saturday at Midnight on RaiderWriter.

Please start early and turn this in as soon as possible to prepare for next week!

Preparing for the Literature Review

To begin preparing for the literature review:

1) Read the “Helpful Information on Literature Reviews” link all the way through.

2) Pull up and read the new link, “More Help on Writing Literature Reviews”

3) Read the 1.1 assignment directions.

If you can write an appropriate introduction for a literature review, with a purpose that matches one of the three in the assignment directions and outlines the groups of research, you have an excellent start on the literature review.

1.1 Thesis:

Read and study the “Example Literature Reviews” on the class website and study the synthesis and organization of each.

Highlight the thesis in the introduction. Is it appropriate for the literature review? Does it match one of the three purposes in the 1.1 assignment directions? Highlight places where you see synthesis.

Bring these to class next week.

Complete Participation 4: Preparation for the Literature Review.

Review:

Complete BA 4, the annotated bibliography of your sources, by Saturday.

Complete Reading 5, on RaiderWriter. There is quite a bit of reading, but it’s necessary.

Complete the preparation for beginning the literature review, outlined in the PowerPoint and the participation assignment directions.

If you skip the preparation, the quality of your participation assignment and literature review will suffer and you will spend more time rewriting during the week.

Complete Participation 4, a 1000 word rough draft (3 full pages) of the literature review.

Next week, bring the Participation 4, a blank 1.1 checklist, and the printed example literature reviews (highlighted) to class.