WR123  Spring 2006     Michael Dembrow, Instructor

 

                          ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT

 

 

          You are now at the point in your research project where you are assembling and evaluating sources, and soon you will begin to take notes on them.  In order to help you to combat your tendencies towards procrastination, I am giving you a deadline for the next phase in the process--producing an annotated bibliography of the sources you have assembled so far.

 

          Your bibliography should include approximately 15-20 sources.  I will be looking to see that you have managed to acquire a range of sources:  newspapers, magazines, journals, encyclopedia entries when appropriate, books, essays in anthologies, non-print sources if possible, WWW, interviews when appropriate.  Remember to get those inter-library loan requests in early! 

 

          The bibliography should include sources that are relevant to YOUR topic, and your annotation should comment on that relevance.  If, for example, your topic is on the anti-Apartheid movement, and your source is a book-length history of South Africa, you will want to give a brief idea of what the book as a whole is about, but the focus of your comments should be on what the book has to say about the anti-Apartheid period. 

 

          Each entry should be 50-100 words long, not including the bibliographic info.  Along with the bibliographic information, try to include the following for each entry:

(1) a brief overview (2-3 sentences) of the source, including its thesis, or main argument;

(2) the scope of the source;

(3) the credibility of the source;

(4) your evaluation of the source's usefulness;

(5) any resources included in the source, such as a bibliography.

 

          Remember that annotations, unlike most academic writing, will frequently not involve complete sentences.  For the sake of brevity, sentence fragments are OK here.

 

          I’ll be putting some examples of past student work on the website for your reference.

 

          Your annotated bibliography should be typed and double-spaced.  Bring in 8-10 entries on Wednesday, April 26 for a draft workshop.

 

          Final version is due on Wednesday, May 3.

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