Annotated Bibliography Guidelines

Annotated Bibliographies
(2 separate assignments; one for the GRP and one for the IRP)

Topic: The sources for these assignments are the sources that will be used for the "guided" and "individual" research papers.

Type of Assignment: An annotated bibliography is used before writing the research paper. Its purpose is to force you to take time to comprehend your sources, and to consider its relevancy and reliability before deciding whether it is a useful, reliable source. An annotated bibliography also may lessen instances of plagiarism in the final draft of the research paper, since students have to fully understand the content of the source in order to write the annotation.

Task: You will write an annotation of 200-300 words for each source that you intend to use for the research papers. The annotation for each source should have the following 4 components:
(1) source listed in APA, followed by
(2) a brief summary (4-5 sentences),
(3) an explanation of its relevancy to the research topic/question (4-5 sentences), and
(4) an evaluation of its reliability (2-3 sentences).

Formatting: Times New Roman, Size 12, Double-spaced, APA Reference page citations; the research topic or question should be included as the title of the document.

Sources: The three sources for the Guided Research Paper are ultimately chosen and limited by the instructor. The five sources for the Individual Research Paper are chosen by you. The annotated bibliography will be used by the instructor as an opportunity to reject any unacademic or unreliable sources before you begin writing.

Plagiarism: The skill of summarizing will be emphasized in this assignment. We will try to write summaries for the Guided Research Paper Annotated Bibliography to help identify summarizing problems that you may be having. No quoting should be used in the annotated bibliographies. Since the instructor has the opportunity to actually read the sources for the GRP Annotated Bibliography, plagiarism should be easily identifiable.

Samples:
GRP Annotated Bibliography Sample
IRP Annotated Bibliography Sample