Tacoma Community College Library: ENGL 101: Carver, K. (Fall 2024): Annotated bibliographies

ENGL 101: Annotated bibliography assignment

In Professor Carvers's class, you will create an annotated bibliography on a topic related to the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks with five credible sources. For each source that you find you will provide an MLA citation and then write an annotation that includes (1) a summary of key points written in the third person and present tense, (2) an evaluation of article’s strengths and limitations (why is it useful for you?), and (3) an evaluation of credibility of source.

Below you will find resources and examples to help you with creating an annotated bibliography. Use the "Reference sources" tab of this guide for library databases that will provide you with background information and an overview of your topic. Use the "Articles" tab for library databases that will provide you with newspaper, magazine, and scholarly journal articles about your topic.

What an annotation IS and IS NOT

An annotation is:

A description of what YOU found out about a resource and what YOU think of its usefulness.

An annotation is not:

A collection of text copied from that resource. The annotation is only helpful if YOU are the one describing and evaluating the resource in your own words.

Annotated bibliographies resources

The following websites provide examples to help you with writing your annotations.

The Purdue OWL: Annotated Bibliography examples
This 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.

Annotation example

Sample MLA Annotation:

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. If you were writing in APA style, the annotation would look the same however, you would use an APA style citation at the top.

NOTE: Instructor's expectations on what to include in an annotation may vary. Check with your instructor for their specific guidelines.