Annotated Bibliography

Length: Varies (see specific sentence requirement below)

Genre: Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of sources (formatted like your reference page), with short summaries under each source.  Annotated bibliographies are helpful methods to help organize research and keep track of who said what in your research.  As you continue your education, and have larger research projects with more sources, this becomes increasingly important.

We will be using APA citation style for this assignment and for the final research paper. 

This assignment will help you organize and evaluate the research that you have been conducting for your research paper. I will also give you feedback over the following week if I see any issues with any of your sources. I will try to get these back to you by Thursday night so that you still have some time to find new sources if there are any issues. It takes me a while to go through these all though, so please be patient this week. 

Getting Started

Before completing this assignment...

1. Gather and read at least 5 scholarly, peer-reviewed sources. (I strongly recommend taking notes and annotating (highlighting/leaving notes on) your research so that when you write your paper, you can find the important information.)

2. Watch the Annotated Bibliography video. It's only two minutes in length and covers the basics.

Instructions and Requirements

Create an annotated bibliography for at least five scholarly sources that you can likely use for your research paper.  See the example Annotated Bibliographies linked below for what this assignment should look like. 

Your Annotated Bibiography must...

• Include the full APA reference page citation for each source. 

  • See below for full requirements and more information on citations. 

• After each source: include a 3-4 sentence summary of the source.  You will need to have read the article, book (or section/chapter that you are citing), or a web page in its entirety to complete this assignment. 

• After the summary, write 2-3 sentences to evaluate and reflect on the source.

  • How does it compare or relate to your other sources? 

  • Is this source scholarly and peer-reviewed? How can you tell?

  • Does this information seem credible, current, and objective? Why or why not?

  • How can you use this source for your paper? 

  • Note: if you have additional sources that you will be using as primary sources (non-scholarly sources being used for background information or to establish the context) please indicate that in this section and how you are planning on using that source. You'll still need a minimum of five scholarly sources for this assignment though (any primary sources will be in addition to your secondary scholarly sources). 

Example Annotated Bibliographies

Two examples of Annotated Bibliographies are available in the Project 1 Example Google Drive folder. 

Important Reminders

A scholarly source will...

• be written by an expert in the field.

• be peer-reviewed by another expert or panel of experts in the field.

• be free of bias (not sponsored by an organization or business that would benefit from a particular result). 

• cite sources that they reference throughout their article (and those sources will also be scholarly). 

• not be a news article, magazine article, or general information article on the internet. 

There are very few general internet sites that will meet these criteria. Generally speaking, you will need to use Macomb's library databases (with the peer-reviewed option checked) and/or Google Scholar to find scholarly sources. 

There are a few medical websites that aren't quite scholarly, however, they take complicated medical news and studies and write articles that are more readable for the undergraduate or general public level, while still ensuring their articles are cited (using peer-reviewed articles) and medically or peer-reviewed. Therefore, I will accept articles on Medical News Today, Healthline, and Very Well Mind provided that meet the following criteria: the article is well-developed and complex (no quick "Top 10" or list articles), cites peer-reviewed studies, is up-to-date, and is medically or peer-reviewed. 

See the "APA Style Requirements (Formatting, Style, and Citations)" section below for more information on APA requirements for this assignment and your final paper.