6.1 Annotated Bibliography
The previous chapter presents some strategies you can use to locate information to help you learn more a topic, issue, or question and to assess the extent to which this information can help you develop a legitimate, credible, and well-supported argument. As you read, it is important to write down the citation, or bibliographic information, of each source, including the author’s name, date of publication, the title of an article or book, the title of the journal in which an article appears, page numbers, and publishing information for a book.
Collecting the basic information about each source is useful, but you should also write an annotated bibliography to record your preliminary evaluation of the information you find. In writing an annotation, you should include the key ideas and claims from each source. You can also identify where you see gaps, misconceptions, and areas that you can build upon in developing your own argument. That is, in addition to stating what a given source is about, you can address the following questions: What is the issue the author responds to? What is the author’s purpose? To what extent is the argument persuasive? Does it overlook any issues that are important? Finally, you can explain the relevance of this work to your own research, given your own purpose for writing and what you want to demonstrate.
You can limit each annotation to a few sentences in which you present the author’s key claims and ideas, briefly analyze the author’s argument, and then explain how you will use that information in your own researched argument. The annotation below provides one such example. Using APA format for the citation.
Loftstrom, M., & Tyler, J. H. (2009). Finishing high school:
Alternative pathways and dropout recovery. The Future of
Children, 19(1), 77-103. http://doi.org/10.1353/foc.0.0019
This article provides a good history and analysis of the Present dropout problem facing
our nation. Researchers examine the discrepancy in statewide high school completion
requirements that have led to debates about reality if dropout rates. The authors also
examine social and economic consequences of failure to complete high school and
inadequacy of a GED certificate as a replacement for a highschool diploma. The researchers
conclude by examining some dropout prevention programs and by calling for more research
in this area. In doing so, they identify a gap that my research at an alternative high school
can help to fill, especially my interviews with students currently enrolled in the program and
those who have dropped out.
More samples on Purdue OWL:
