You can create annotations in different ways, depending on the purpose of your literature analysis. Pay attention to when studies were published as well, since your analysis should represent the timeline of developments appropriately while being up to date with the current literature. Such cases might need to be included in an overview of a topic, alongside seminal papers and works that are cited by every new publication in the field. You don’t want to put too much emphasis on dubious and obscure publications-unless, of course, a “bad” study received particular attention for being biased, containing errors, or not being in line with the required standards in the field and thereby sparked controversy or inspired debates. While your annotation should mainly focus on the source, not the authors or their work in general, it can help your selection of valuable sources to check credentials as well as the publisher or journal where you found an article. – the author’s interpretation or conclusion (and whether you agree) Quality matters – how the main findings relate to your topic – how the main findings relate to other research – the methods used and if they seem appropriate Your notes could contain the following details: Taking notes will help you organize your sources from the start and will make writing annotation paragraphs much easier. – the quality of each source (e.g., often cited versus famously criticized works) Stay organized – the kind of data (experiments, meta-analyses,…) you are interested in – whether you are creating an overview or identifying a gap in the literature – specific methods or the range of methods that have been/are being used – your research topic and important keywords Start by reading abstracts to identify and select relevant sources, and keep the following points in mind: How to choose sources for your annotations You also need to consider whether your annotated bibliography is a stand-alone assignment that simply provides an overview of a certain field or issue or whether it represents preliminary research into a specific research topic. Not every work that has ever been published on your topic needs to be included in your bibliography-choosing the most relevant ones is a very important part of creating an annotation list. Next, create a citation for each book, article, or document following the required style guide.įinally, add an annotation that summarizes/evaluates the central theme and scope of the work. Then examine every item in your preliminary list and choose the works that provide the necessary information. To create an annotated bibliography, you first need to do a careful library search: find articles, books, and other sources that may contain useful information and ideas on your topic. Whether you need to simply describe or critically evaluate or analyze each source depends on your assignment and/or the purpose of your bibliography.Īnnotation summary or evaluation paragraphs should usually be arranged alphabetically, according to the author’s last name, and need to be in line with the required citation style (more on that below). Annotation ComponentsĮach entry in an annotated bibliography consists of a citation and the “ annotation“, a short paragraph that summarizes or evaluates the source. Creating an annotated bibliography is also a great way for you to familiarize yourself with and review the material available on a particular topic, and to take systematic notes that help you organize your thoughts and identify gaps in the existing literature or issues that might be worth exploring further. The purpose of such annotation lists is not only to show your professor that you have done your job (although it can sometimes feel like that)-it is to describe and categorize the literature on the topic you are researching, and to critically analyze how relevant or meaningful each source is for your current work, how accurate the findings are, and whether the conclusions drawn by the authors are justified. It usually consists of citations followed by short paragraphs of 150–250 words. An annotated bibliography is a list of sources (books, articles, other publications) that provides an overview of the available research on a topic by summarizing, interpreting, or evaluating each entry.
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