Annotated Bibliography assignment

Annotated Bibliographies

Please write an annotated bibliography that will equal 50% of your total grade for the Symposium. You must have a minimum of 5 sources and at least 2 sources must be from print texts which can be reference books, works of literature, etc. The annotations are to be 1 paragraph in length.

Definitions
A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic.

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation.

Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources.

Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say?

Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is it this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?

Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

Why should I write an annotated bibliography?
To learn about your topic: Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. Just collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you're forced to read each source more carefully. You begin to read more critically instead of just collecting information.

Format

The bibliographic information: Generally, though, the bibliographic information of the source (the title, author, publisher, date, etc.) is written MLA format. For more help with formatting, see OWL's MLA handout at this location: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource.
The annotations: The annotations for each source are written in paragraph form.

Good research websites: http://perso.univ-lyon2.fr/ and http://library.thinkquest.org/ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-52739/vietnam http://www.fordham.edu/halsal/mod/modsbooks.html#india , http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu29me/uu29me03.htm