Project

These annotations should include one or more sentences that:

Cite the background and institutional affiliation of the author(s)
Comment on the intended audience. For whom was it written (general public, subject specialists, college students)? What skill level or education level must the reader have?
Compare or contrast this work with others you have cited.
Discuss how this work relates to your selected topic.
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Parts of the Annotated Bibliogrphy:

Choose a working title – A working title simply means a title for your project that best describes what the project is all about. It must be descriptive and crisp. You want to grab your reader’s attention. So, it has to be both interesting and inviting. The reason why it’s called a “working title” is that you may change it, if needed, as you progress through reading the literature, writing your bibliography, and getting a better sense of the material.

Thesis Statement – is a one or two sentence statement of the position you are taking in the analysis that will follow. This is the most critical (and creative) part of the writing process. A good thesis statement will distill your ideas into a sentence or two; it helps you (and your audience) to focus, organize, and develop your position on the subject and provides a quick guide to your argument. Your thesis statement will accomplish these goals if you think of the thesis as the answer to the question your research explores.
When you started thinking about the project, you may not have had a specific question in mind, but as you became more involved in the literature—that is reading, selecting your sources, and writing your annotated bibliography—your ideas on the topic should become more specific as you begin to take a position on the topic. Your thesis will often change to reflect your new insights.

A strong thesis statement will:

take a stand on an issue
expresses one main idea
is specific
will show exactly what your project will be about
shows your conclusions about a subject
will help you keep your presentation to a manageable topic
An annotated bibliography is simply a list of citations to books, articles, and other resources. Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph: the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. Annotations are usually about 150 to 250 words. Abstracts are the descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles or in subscription databases. Annotations, on the other hand, are descriptive and critical; they discuss the author’s point of view, clarity, appropriateness of expression, authority, etc.

Annotated bibliographies can be invaluable in the research process, especially when working with large numbers of sources over a long period of time. It is impossible to recall details about every source on a given topic. Well-written annotations can help crystallize key information presented in each article or book, preserving it in a format that can be easily accessed and revisited at any stage of the writing process. An annotated bibliography can be created in response to a specific research question, or it might represent exploratory research on a broader topic at an earlier stage of the research process. Writing about each source individually helps clarify and situate the perspectives of different scholars and their approaches to a given topic. In this way, the annotated bibliography can serve as the basis of a review of literature; it functions as the “nuts and bolts” of the research, laying out different themes and positions that have emerged about the topic in the literature of the field.

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Examples of Annotated Bibliography:

The following links will take you to websites with examples of appropriate annotated bibliography:

http://classguides.lib.uconn.edu/content.php?pid=239974&sid=1981395
http://libguides.library.cityu.edu.hk/litreview/evaluating-sources
Your complete annotated bibliography should look like this:

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Examples of Citation and Annotation Format:

What you are expected to create!
The Annotated Bibliography & Presentation is comprised of two components and a presentation peer evaluation:

Annotated Bibliography (including a thesis statement) – 100 Points
Presentation (based on your thesis and your bibliographic research) – 100 Points
Review five of your classmates’ presentations – 50 Points
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Select a Topic

Choose one of the following broad areas listed below. You will be creating an annotated bibliography for a specialized topic within one of these areas. In addition, you will use your research for a 10 to 15 minute online presentation.

Inequality
Social Evolution
Oligarchy
Capitalism
Bureaucracy
Alienation
Power Elite
Materialism
Human Nature
Other Approved Topic
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Annotated Bibliography Headings:

Your Name
SOC 4023
Date (format MO,/Day/Year)
Working Title
Thesis Statement
Citations
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Annotated Bibliography Format:

The annotated bibliography should be 1 cohesive document focused on your topic.
Required section headings: Books, Articles, Websites.
Citations with annotations alphabetize within the section by authors last name. If no author is given, consider the first letter of the first word of your citation when alphabetizing.
10 citations and annotations required; minimum of 3 websites, 4 journal articles, 3 books.
Each annotation should be singled spaced with 150 to 250 words
1 inch margins, Arial, 12 pt. font