An annotated bibliography helps you gather sources relevant to your research.
Tips!
- Be organized. As you search the databases and the Web, save pdfs and citations. Try using NoodleTools to collect citations so that you can export them into a bibliography later.
- As you collect sources, think about how the sources can support your claims and provide evidence for your arguments. Organize your thoughts in an outline, pulling out important quotations and ideas from the sources. NoodleTools allows you to make an outline and to create notecards to record quotations and paraphrasing from sources.
- Note: when you see folks get caught for plagiarism in the news, they often blame it on poor organization or a bad memory (I had forgotten where I heard that!). Keep organized to avoid unintentional plagiarism.
- Follow your professors guidelines to decide what and how much information to include in your annotated bibliography. Usually, an annotated bibliography includes some of the following:
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summarizes the main argument of the source – what it is about?
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evaluates the credibility of the source – what about the author, publication, etc. makes you believe this source is credible?
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Reflects upon the usefulness of the source – how is this source relevant or helpful to your research project? What did you learn about your topic from this source? Did it change your thoughts about the topic
