ENGL 101: Sandin, J. (Spring 2024): Annotated bibliographies
What is an annotation?
An annotation is a brief description and/or evaluation of the content, purpose, and usefulness of a source. Annotations can be written for a variety of purposes, though generally they are written as a way to help those interested in a topic find reliable information on that topic. As a student, writing annotations can help you:
- Increase your awareness of different kinds of resources available about your topic
-
Identify, describe and perhaps evaluate the content, purpose and usefulness of different kinds of sources
Your annotations should:
Describe what YOU found out about a source and what YOU think of its usefulness.
Your annotations should NOT:
Be a collection of text copied from that source. The annotation is only helpful if you are the one describing and evaluating the source in your own words.
Annotated bibliography resources
The following websites provide examples to help you with writing your annotations.
- The Purdue OWL: Annotated Bibliography examplesThis robust guide from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue provides guidance on writing annotated bibliographies and provides examples.
- Annotated bibliographies (University of North Carolina Writing Center)Explains why annotated bibliographies are useful for researchers, provide an explanation of what constitutes an annotation, describe various types of annotations and styles for writing them, and offer multiple examples of annotated bibliographies in the MLA, APA, and CBE/CSE styles of citation.
Sample annotation in MLA style
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor Books, 1995.
Lamott's book offers honest advice on the nature of a writing life, complete with its insecurities and failures. Taking a humorous approach to the realities of being a writer, the chapters in Lamott's book are wry and anecdotal and offer advice on everything from plot development to jealousy, from perfectionism to struggling with one's own internal critic.
In the process, Lamott includes writing exercises designed to be both productive and fun. Lamott offers sane advice for those struggling with the anxieties of writing, but her main project seems to be offering the reader a reality check regarding writing, publishing, and struggling with one's own imperfect humanity in the process. Rather than a practical handbook to producing and/or publishing, this text is indispensable because of its honest perspective, its down-to-earth humor, and its encouraging approach.
Chapters in this text could easily be included in the curriculum for a writing class. Several of the chapters in Part 1 address the writing process and would serve to generate discussion on students' own drafting and revising processes. Some of the writing exercises would also be appropriate for generating classroom writing exercises. Students should find Lamott's style both engaging and enjoyable.
In the sample annotation above, the writer includes three paragraphs: a summary, an evaluation of the text, and a reflection on its applicability to his/her own research, respectively.
Source: "Sample MLA Annotation" by Purdue OWL.
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