Annotated Bibliography

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2020/11/23 Annotated Bibliography Assignment (Prompt): Fal20 ENGL 001A #74618 READING AND COMPOSITION-Online

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Annotated Bibliography Assignment
(Prompt)
Here is the actual assignment for the Annotated Bibliography. It is due by Tuesday, 11/24, by
11:59pm.

Assignment:

Using what you’ve learned about how to use the PCC library and how to evaluate sources to make
sure they’re reputable, find three of the sources that you are going to use for your research paper.
Make sure these sources meet the requirements. Remember that for your final essay, you will
need a total of five sources, and they will need to be as follows:

1. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.

At least two sources must be from a PCC library database.
At least one source must be from a credible website outside the PCC database– a website
that is appropriate for academic use.
At least one source must be scholarly. (These may be articles from PCC library databases or
books that are “peer reviewed.” We will go over these in a future module.)

NOTE: Even though you are not required to use the following types of sources, here are some
other sources to consider for your paper:

Books, anthologies or textbooks (including e-versions of these)
Documentaries (must be non-fiction films)
Interviews
Podcasts

The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should
use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them

Make sure that you have evaluated any website or other sources you use to ensure that they are
reliable sources for use in an academic paper (see the video on the page “Evaluating Resources
for Reliability”). (https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/pages/evaluating-resources-for-
reliability)

What to Include:
An annotated bibliography includes

1. a full, alphabetized MLA Works Cited list of every source you’ve used while researching your
proposition, and

https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/pages/evaluating-resources-for-reliability

2020/11/23 Annotated Bibliography Assignment (Prompt): Fal20 ENGL 001A #74618 READING AND COMPOSITION-Online

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2. underneath every Works Cited entry is an annotation—a summary and evaluation of how you
might use the source in your essay. Your annotations should, in one fully developed paragraph,
accomplish these 2 tasks in this order:
1. Summarize the source: What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or

article or website? What topics are covered? If someone asked you what this
article/book/website is about, what would you say? Try to keep this summary around 3-4
sentences.

2. Evaluate the source: Once you’ve summarized a source, you need to evaluate whether it is
credible and relevant enough to cite. Is it a useful source for your purposes? How might you
use it to help shape your argument? How does it compare with other sources in your
bibliography? Finally, is the information reliable? Is this source biased? Try to keep your
evaluation around 3-4 sentences

Write you annotation for each entry on the line following the bibliographic information. Indent the
entire annotation.

Please also remember to:
include your revised research question at the top of the assignment, below your heading for
the assignment and before the first entry.
include the tentative title for your research essay, followed by a colon and “Annotated
Bibliography.”
arrange all entries alphabetically, the way you always do with Works Cited entries.
double-space the entire document
indent all lines in an entry after the first
do NOT number the entries.

see this sample MLA Annotated Bibliography
(https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/pages/s
ample-annotated-bibliography-entry) for a model of a
correctly formatted one.

https://canvas.pasadena.edu/courses/1110549/pages/sample-annotated-bibliography-entry

2020/11/23 Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry: Fal20 ENGL 001A #74618 READING AND COMPOSITION-Online

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Sample Annotated Bibliography Entry
Here is an example of an Annotated Bibliography entry for a research paper on the novel The
Kite Runner:

Noor, Ronny. “Review of The Kite Runner.” World Literature Today 78.3-4 (2004): 148. Rpt. in

Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 254. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource

Center. Web. 29 Mar. 2010.

In her article, Ronny Noor provides a quick overview of The Kite Runner’s plot, and then

discusses its strengths and weaknesses as a novel. Noor argues that the novel is excellent

“only if we consider it a novel of sin and redemption” (148). In terms of the history of

Afghanistan, she claims that the book provides a “selective, simplistic, even simple-minded

picture” (148) of what led to the Soviet invasion and the subsequent rise of the Taliban.

This source will be useful to as background information to my tentative argument that

Hosseini presents the history of the Taliban inaccurately in The Kite Runner. I will need

more specific sources to really flesh this argument out, but this article provides a good

starting point for my research on the Taliban, especially since the source mentions the role

of the CIA and President Carter’s administration in the Taliban’s rise to power.

Note that this is one entry and you will be turning in
three entries for your Annotated Bibliography
assignment. You will then be adding two additional
sources so that your research paper has a total of
at least five resources.