Annotated Bibliography

 Provide a list of at least six sources that you have identified for the paper.  Two of these must be primary source documents and two must be academic journal articles.  These should be specific sources, not just places where you can find sources.  Annotated bibliographies should be submitted via the Assignments Folder.   Read over the instructions in the Research & Writing discussion forum to be sure you understand the requirements for this assignment.   If not, ask questions in that topic thread or email me.  

 
 

THE TOPIC : cyber weapons proliferation,

Provide an annotated list of at least six sources that you have identified for your research paper.  Two of these must be primary source documents and two must be academic journal articles.  These should be specific sources, not just places where you can find sources.   

CONTENT:  Annotations should evaluate, summarize, and reflect on each source.   This means you will evaluate the source as to why it is considered a valid, academic source (who wrote it?  Are they experts in the field?  Was the item peer reviewed?   Is it well documented?  If it from a reliable news source?)   Is it a primary source (firsthand account or original document/data) or a secondary source (written by someone who researched the topic)?   Summarize the content of the source in your own words with no direct quotes from the source.   Finally, reflect on the source in terms of how the information it provides is useful in helping you prove the thesis of your paper.   

FORMAT:   For each source, provide a full APA style (version 7) citation.   Include the URL or DOI for each source.    Following each citation, provide a paragraph containing your evaluation, summary, and reflection for the source.   

SUBMISSION:   Annotated bibliographies should be submitted via the Assignments Folder.   The assignment will open for submissions at the beginning of week 4.   

If you have questions about this assignment, please ask them here so others benefit as well. 

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Here is some additional info on writing your annotated bibliography taken from 

https://libguides.merrimack.edu/political_science/AnnotatedBibliography

What is an Annotated Bibliography?  

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, Web sites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called “References” or “Works Cited” depending on the style format you are using. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.).

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following.

· 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? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is.

· 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 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. At the professional level, annotated bibliographies allow you to see what has been done in the literature and where your own research or scholarship can fit. To help you formulate a thesis: Every good research paper is an argument. The purpose of research is to state and support a thesis. So a very important part of research is developing a thesis that is debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated bibliography can help you gain a good perspective on what is being said about your topic. By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you’ll start to see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and you’ll then be able to develop your own point of view.

How do I format an annotated bibliography?

The format of an annotated bibliography can vary, so if you’re doing one for a class, it’s important to ask for specific guidelines.

The bibliographic information: Generally, though, the bibliographic information of the source (the title, author, publisher, date, etc.) is written in either MLA or APA format.

//For our course, you must begin each item with an APA style (7th version) citation, followed by your annotation.//

The annotations: The annotations for each source are written in paragraph form. The lengths of the annotations can vary significantly from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages. The length will depend on the purpose. If you’re just writing summaries of your sources, the annotations may not be very long. However, if you are writing an extensive analysis of each source, you’ll need more space.

You can focus your annotations for your own needs. A few sentences of general summary followed by several sentences of how you can fit the work into your larger paper or project can serve you well when you go to draft.