Purpose

A basic component of academic research is the Annotated Bibliography, which is a list of all of the sources you have found during your research so far, and that you may use in whatever project you are working on. My goal for this assignment is to force you to begin doing some research early and explain what your overall plan for the project is. After I review your Annotated Bibliography, we will have a conference about it so that I can give you advice on how to move forward with your research and the project in general.

Specifics

The Annotated Bibliography is a list of the sources you have found so far. The list is in alphabetical order as it would be on your Works Cited page, and includes a full citation for each source as it would appear on your Works Cited page. However, in addition, an Annotated Bibliography includes an annotation for each source, which is basically a summary of the source and some commentary on why the source is useful to your project. Include an annotation for each source you have collected so far. Here is a sample annotated bibliography.

At the end of the list of sources, also include several paragraphs of explanation of your plan for the essay. Explain what controversial issue the essay will focus on. Explain how the research sources you've collected so far contribute to your understanding of the problem (do they present an argument, relevant evidence, etc), and what your tentative argument is at this point.

The purpose of the Annotated Bibliography is to motivate you to begin your research early, to begin evaluating your research sources, and to begin thinking about how they might fit together in your paper. In addition, this assignment asks you to put together your Works Cited page citations now, so that you’re not scrambling to do them at the last minute.

This assignment also helps give me a clearer sense of where you are headed with your Research Essay so that I can better advise you and help you generate ideas. It also allows me to identify any problems with your controversy or sources early on.

Minimum Requirements

This assignment must fulfill the following requirements:

Include at least four sources
Include a full Works Cited page citation, formatted in MLA format, for each source. To figure out how to do this, use the instructions on OWL at Purdue's site.
Include a clear summary of each research source: Explain what it is about so that I can get a sense of the article. Here you will want to clearly state the main argument or point and explain some of the topics and supporting reasons focused on in the text.
Include commentary on why the source is useful and what kind of evidence it adds to your project. Does it add a particular perspective or type of evidence? Explain why you are including it.
At the end of your list of sources, explain what controversial topic your essay will be about—what is the problem and why are people concerned about it? Explain what you think your argument is. Then, explain the connections you are beginning to see between your sources and how you are currently imagining they will be used together in your paper. This should be 2 or 3 fat, healthy paragraphs long.
Each annotation should be around 100-150 words long.

Sample Entry from an Annotated Bibliography

Here is an example of a single entry from an Annotated Bibliography. Your will have a list of 4 of these, plus the 2-3 paragraphs of explanation of your plan for the essay. As you can see, first comes the Works Cited page citation information for the source. Directly below the citation is an annotation of the sources—a brief summary plus how it's useful.

McNamee, Tom. “Ida B Wells – Big and Bad.” Chicago Sun Times. Chicago Sun Times, 7 Dec. 1986. Web. 8 Jan. 2009.

McNamee explains the poor living conditions of the Ida B. Wells housing project and makes the implicit argument that several factors contribute to the problems experienced by the area. He uses several different sources of information to support his argument. He describes the area and the buildings’ condition; interviews residents and experts on the history of Chicago public housing; describes how the lay-out and design of the buildings affect the community; and explains how gang violence, vandalism, crime and a culture of poverty all contribute to the area’s problems. McNamee’s overall purpose seems to be to inform readers of the terrible living conditions experienced by residents and to identify the major factors contributing to the situation. This source provides a general overview of the problems in the Ida B Wells, some background on the area, as well as essential statistics about the project and the people living there. It will be useful both for that kind of factual information as well as for McNamee’s explanations of where these problems have come from.