Research Analysis

An annotated bibliography is a tool researchers use to organize and summarize their research. It is basically a works cited page that includes a brief summary of each source—known as an annotation—that
helps the researcher keep track of what was important and significant about the included sources in relation to their own research goals. Assembling an annotated bibliography gives you wonderful
experience with 1) conducting research, 2) learning how to read and understand academic sources, 3) discerning the usefulness of these materials to a particular project, and 4) creating proper citations for
each source. In this case, you will be using the annotated bibliography to collect and examine sources that will be used for your upcoming argumentative research paper.
YOUR TASK
For this assignment, you will be assembling an annotated bibliography of academic sources you plan to
use in your argumentative research paper. This is your opportunity to demonstrate the scope of your
argument and how you plan to develop/provide evidence for the various claims you will make to support
it.
Your annotated bibliography should meet the following requirements:
Title: Your Annotated Bibliography must have a title that clearly indicates your research topic. It should
be written like this — Descriptive Title: An Annotated Bibliography (replace the words “Descriptive
Title” with a title that indicates your argument’s topic)
Description of Topic: Your annotated bibliography should begin with a paragraph that describes the
issue you’ve researched, with your working thesis statement in bold text at the end of the paragraph (it
might help to compose this paragraph after you’ve completed your annotations, as going through that
process will help you better formulate your thesis).
Citations: For each source you include in the annotated bibliography, you must write a correct MLAstyle full citation.
Annotations: An annotation is a brief but accurate and fair summary & description of a source. Each
annotation should be approximately 200 words and include both a summary of what’s contained, covered,
or argued in the source—its main objectives and most salient points (3-6 sentences)—and a discussion of
how this source will be useful to your argumentative research paper (2-4 sentences). Here are some
questions to help you write each annotation:
• What is the primary thesis of this article?
• What arguments does the author make that are significant to my own approach to the topic?
• What evidence does the author use to support their arguments?
• What facts, statistics, or other information in this source might be important to my own argument?
• Does the author make any arguments that contradict other research I have read?
Number of Sources: Six (6) sources, all of which must be peer-reviewed academic articles
Organization: The annotated bibliography must be organized alphabetically according to the citations.
FORMATTING
There is no page length, as these will vary, but you must include at least six citation-annotation
pairs (one for each source)
Times New Roman size 12 font
Double-spaced
One-inch margins all around
Appropriate title (see instructions above)
MLA formatting and documentation style, which can be found here:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla
_sample_paper.html
SCORING
Your essay will be evaluated according to the following characteristics:
• Title (5 pts): Follows the format described on this assignment sheet.
• Description of Topic (30 pts): Topic paragraph is descriptive, thorough, and clearly identifies
your argument’s thesis statement in bold font.
• Citations (40 pts): Citations are consistently and correctly formatted according to the most recent
version of MLA documentation style (see Chapter 22 of your textbook for guidelines)
• Annotations (50 pts): Summaries are accurate and thorough, and each annotation includes a
detailed indication of how the source can be useful to the upcoming argument paper.
• Number of Sources (20 pts): The annotated bibliography documents at least six sources, all of
which are peer-reviewed academic materials
• Organization (5 pts): The list of entries (citation-annotation pairs) is organized alphabetically
according to the citations.