Assignment Purpose: An annotated bibliography is a list of sources that appear o

Assignment Purpose:
An annotated bibliography is a list of sources that appear or might appear in researched document. It is like a works cited page in structure and purpose, but also has a brief annotation after each entry. Annotations are short paragraphs, about half of a page, that summarize a source and offer a brief description of how you, the writer, intend to use it. Because you’re writing this before writing the actual research paper, the annotated bibliography will be predictive; it will focus on the sources you EXPECT to use, and how you ANTICPATE using them. The final research paper will likely match this, at least mostly, but does not have to.
Your annotated bibliography needs to have 8 sources. Using our Research Tiers page as a guide, your first sources should be top tier ones drawn from our research databases. Most of the rest of your 8 sources should also be from our databases, both top and high tier. You can also have a small number of middle tier sources, which work best in your introduction as hooks, and low tier sources if you need them as examples for things. For example, you might cite a low tier source that is promoting a conspiracy theory, using it as evidence of what a conspiracy theory thinks, but not as factual evidence. You should exercise your best judgement when determining the worth and relevance of any source.
We’ll be working on the annotated bibliography for several weeks. Here is a rough outline of the pace you should set:
Weeks 10 and 11:
For the first two weeks working on the bibliography, you should cast a wide net on our research databases. Your goal isn’t to do much reading yet. Instead, you look through as many top and high tier sources as you can, reading the titles and abstracts, and skimming their contents. Aim to skim through considerably more than ten articles – expect to read through the titles and abstracts from the first several pages of results, and to skim a couple of dozen of those articles.
By the end of week 11, you should 15+ sources that you’ve skimmed through and that you think are worth reading in full. Depending on how quickly you work, you can start reading these articles in full in week 11. You can also start looking for high, middle, and low tier sources from the wider internet once you have a foundation of sources from our databases.
Week 12:
Week 12 is when you should do the bulk of your reading. Read the articles and other sources you’ve found in detail, taking notes and consulting our Canvas pages on how to approach difficult research. Your goal while reading your sources is to learn as much as you can about the conversation scholars, professionals, and other voices are having about your chosen topic. The goal for essay 4 is to join this conversation, and once you’ve done this reading, you should have a pretty good idea what your contribution to the conversation is going to be.
Week 13:
Your goal this week is to finish any remaining reading and write your annotated bibliography. Each annotation will include the full bibliographic citation and a paragraph summarizing the articles content and predicting how you expect to use it in your research essay. You will find an example annotation entry below.
Requirements:
Proper MLA format
8 sources on topic for your chosen topic
5+ pages depending on how long your annotations are