What is an Annotated Bibliography?

1. What is an Annotated Bibliography? • An annotated bibliography gives an account of the research that has been done on a given topic • Each citation is followed by a brief (around 100- 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph: aka the annotation • I.O.W. It provides a concisesummary of each source and some assessment of its value or relevance • An annotated bibliography may be one stage in a larger research project, or it may be an independent project standing on its own

2. Why prepare one? • The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited • Annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author's point of view, clarity and appropriateness of expression, and authority

3. The Process • First, locate and record citations to books, periodicals, and documents that may contain useful information and ideas on your topic. • Examine and review the actual items, then choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic. • Please note: you don’t need to read every source word for word as you write your annotations – skim and identify • Cite each book, article or document using APA style. • Write a concise annotation following each citation, summarizing the central theme and scope of the book, article or document, and including your assessment of the source and its use to your research topic

4. What does it look like? Goldschneider, F. K., Waite, L. J., & Witsberger, C. (1986). Nonfamily living and the erosion of traditional family orientations among young adults. American Sociological Review,51, 541-554. The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to test their hypothesis that non-family living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans, and expectations, moving them away from their belief in traditional sex roles. They find their hypothesis strongly supported in young females, while the effects were fewer in studies of young males. Increasing the time away from parents before marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about families.

5. The Good: The main points of this article were about the basics of fire fighting in the modern world. It discusses how fire fighters are dispatched to a call and how they execute the steps for extinguishing the fire. Encyclopedia Britannica has been published for many years and is used world wide to find information on research projects. This article helps me discuss the basics of fire fighting today and how the basics of fire fighting have stayed the same throughout the generations. The basics of fire fighting can be broken down into four categories. The four steps are protection, confinement, ventilation, and extinguishment. The fire fighting is a systematic process which involves responding, accessing and executing a call for a fire. The Bad: I used this book to get the basic information about firefighting, it was very informative. Examples of Good and Bad Annotations

6. The Good: This web site has various links that provide such things as the history of Buddhism and the values and beliefs in the Buddhism religion. The great thing about the information provided in this web site is that it is compiled by a professor and the information is geared toward someone with little or no knowledge of the Buddhism Culture and Religion. The information is from a professor who also provides citations from where he got his information. The information is historical. This is a great introductory to Buddhism website. It has simple explanations to complex ideas. I will be presenting this information in class and the students will have very little or no previous knowledge on the topic. I think this information will help me organize the information in a logical way and that makes sense. The Bad: I got all the facts I needed about Buddhism and the different beliefs. More Examples of Good and Bad Annotations