Annotated Bibliography Assignment

What is an annotation?

An annotation is more than just a brief summary of an article, book, Web site or other type of publication. An annotation should give enough information to make a reader decide whether to read the complete work. In other words, if the reader were exploring the same topic as you, is this material useful and if so, why?

How is an annotation different from an abstract?

While an abstract also summarizes an article, book, Web site or other type of publication, it is purely descriptive. Although annotations can be descriptive, they also include distinctive features about an item. Annotations can be evaluative and critical as we will see when we look at the two major types of annotations.

Your Assignment

An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources (like a reference list). It differs from a straightforward bibliography in that each reference is followed by a paragraph length annotation, usually 100–200 words in length.

You will prepare an annotated bibliography on a topic of your own choosing -- this topic must be related to your term paper. You will need a minimum of 10 scholarly sources for this assignment (you may use more, but you only need 10 to fulfill the assignment requirements).

How do you write an annotated bibliography?

The four components of an annotated bibliographic entry are as follows:

1. A reference citation of Scholarly (peer reviewed) Journal Articles
• See theThe Purdue University's Online Writing Lab. for formatting issues of Reference List: Articles in Periodicals
2. In Block style aligned on the left margin provide a short paragraph of 100–200 words(3 or 4 sentences) that describes or summarizes the source:
• It describes why the source is useful for researching a particular topic or question, its distinctive features.
• It describes the author's main arguments and conclusions without evaluating what the author says or concludes.
• It examines the strengths and weaknesses of what is presented as well as describing the applicability of the author's conclusions to the research being conducted.
3. A short statement about the usefulness of the article:

• What was the most important concept or idea that you took away from the article about your research topic that you will include in your paper.
• Your assessment of the article's usefulness to your research goals.
• Finally, press the enter key twice before you start your next citation.

Example

Starr, P.D. & Roberts, A.E. (1982). Attitudes toward new Americans: Perceptions of Indo-Chinese in nine cities. Research in Race and Ethnic Relations, 3, 165-186.

The authors discuss some of the sociological and historical factors that have influenced American attitudes and official policy toward Asian immigrants in the past and that continue to influence current opinion. Contemporary attitudes toward Indo-Chinese (IC) expressed by local residents in nine cities in California, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida were examined. Seven-hundred and forty five questionnaires were returned by respondents. The authors describe how the respondents' points of view were influenced by different background characteristics and their experiences with IC people. The results show less overt racism than has been found in previous studies, but great receptivity to the IC people was not found in the present study. Only a small proportion of the respondents regarded the IC people as undesirable, but many thought that they affected the community negatively.

I found it interesting that persons of higher education or with jobs of higher status tended to be more positive in their views of the IC people, while political conservatives expressed more negative attitudes.