Annotated Bibliography
(10% of Project #3) If you do not turn this assignment in on the date required, you will fail the course for non-completion of course requirements.
Sources: Minimum of 8
1. At least 2 must be print sources (this includes ebooks, but no other electronic sources).
2. At least 2 must be from library database sources (Proquest, JSTOR, Lexis-Nexis, etc., not web searches). (Wikipedia is not, under any circumstances, an acceptable source for academic work.)
3. You may or may not be required to use all these sources in your final draft of the essay, but you will want to be sure that each one has something of substance to offer you. You are in quest of as much expertise on the subject as you can acquire in the time you have.
Annotations
1. Citations are to be in proper MLA format.
2. Each annotation should be about 200-250 words.
3. Annotations must include the following:
a. why the source is to be trusted *,
b. a statement of the source’s subject matter and the writer’s primary claim,
c. a brief summary of the source,
d. an explanation of the specific ways in which the source will help you.
* Focus on author credentials, and only add publication information if you cannot find much on the author but you still think the article is trustworthy.
4. Format: annotations form a natural part of the works cited entry. When you complete the entry itself, immediately follow it with the annotation. Do not skip to a new line, and keep indenting as you do for second and following lines in the regular entry. When you complete it, it should simply look like a very long works cited entry.
Sample Bibliography Annotation
Note on order of information: the information is given in the citation in the same order as requested in the assignment. This helps me evaluate your work more quickly.
Note on formatting: Everything should, of course, be double-spaced as usual, and the second and following lines indented one tab. I cannot seem to do the double-spacing here.
Here is an example of the type of content expected for your annotations. Do not put the bracketed notes in your annotations; they are here merely to show you the structure of the annotation.
Williams, Donald T. “Writers Cramped.” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere
Christianity Sept. 2007: 15-18. Print. <context> Donald T. Williams is a professor of English at Toccoa Falls (Christian) College, who has written several books and many articles on literature and the human condition, as well as publishing his own poetry. {This article was published in a journal with a reputation for high-quality informal scholarly articles on such subjects from a Christian perspective.} <brief summary> In this article, Williams, an evangelical, explores reasons that the evangelical world has not created the kind of great art found among writers from the liturgical traditions. For one thing, evangelicals often see art as a mere vehicle for evangelism instead of a good in itself. Using fiction writer Flannery O’Connor as an example, he explains how her Catholic upbringing gave her “a true worldview,” “a definition of art that affirmed a spiritual purpose,” and “a sense of mystery”: all essential to the creation of excellent Christian fiction. Her Christian worldview allowed her to see man and God in proper relation, and she saw art as spiritual in its very essence. As for mystery, in it we find the most important aspects of human nature and our place in the world. <writer’s purpose and audience> Because I am encouraging creative writing students to embrace an understanding of excellence that is founded on a Christian worldview without being formulaic or superficial, <specific ways this source will be used> this article is especially helpful in Williams’ discussion of O’Connor’s three essentials. I will explain briefly what he says about worldview and purpose as background, but, because my readers will be already familiar with those concepts, I will make the greatest use of his point about mystery: this is the least familiar to my readers and I wish them to understand its place in writing from a position of Christian faith. Thus, Williams’ discussion will support my point that writing should not be formulaic and obvious if it is to be more than mere propaganda. I will also use his discussion of art as a good in itself, and not merely as a vehicle of evangelism, to support my point that we should write all things “Christianly,” although not necessarily with explicitly Christian themes.