Annotations: How do
we do this again?!
So you need to do an annotated
bibliography eh? Good thing you’re not alone. LOTS of students have to create
them. As a matter of fact, at some point ALL students have to create one. Its
part of that “required” thing you gotta do as a student. Thankfully, you have
people. Those people just happen to have done annotated bibliographies before
you knew what one was. You could say they have some experience.
The Cornell
University Library has defined an annotated bibliography as:
“a
list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed
by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the
annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the
relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited (http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm).”
In
English, this means you are creating a paragraph that others may read to get a
general idea of what your sources are about. The hardest part is being concise
with your information. Annotations take practice but once you get the hang of
it they are easy. Here are the steps to follow:
A: Talk about the author. (1 sentence)
Is
this a professor? Maybe this is a professional in the field? Or is this person
a hobbyist? Tell the audience about the author in the first part of the
annotation.
B: Explain what the article is
about. (1-3 sentences)
Tell
the audience what is in the article. This is the most difficult part of the
annotation because it requires you to be very succinct. Don’t rewrite the
article; just write the base facts and important notes about the article here.
C: Explain how this article
illuminates your bibliography topic. (1-2 sentences)
What
about this article makes it relevant to your topic? Why did you select it? What
pertinent bit of information makes this article stand out among the others?
D: Compare or contrast this work
with another you have cited. (1-2 sentences)
How
does this specific article relate to another article in your annotated
bibliography? Do they agree or not? Why not? What makes them unique?