An annotated bibliography includes the following:
- 5 sources from the USC Upstate Library or Library Databases that provide information and/or arguments about your topic.
- full citation information in MLA style for each source. Highlight your citation and click CTRL-T to format a hanging indent.
- At least one should advocate a position that you do not support.
- a paragraph of your own words that:
- summarizes the point and argument of the text and the type of evidence used to support its claim. The Norton Field Guide calls summary a restatement of the main ideas without most examples or details (360). You should always think of a summary as an overview; boil the experience down to its most essential points. The purpose of a summary is to explain what someone else said, not just what they are talking about. In summaries, you must introduce the author and title at the start of your summary, and you need to keep using signal phrases to show that the ideas belong to the text. Review the chapter titled "The Art of Summary" in They Say, I Say, or view the Purdue OWL for examples.
- identifies the perspective and assumptions of the author(s). This includes bias due to politics or values as well as area of expertise. Most academic journals include brief biographies of the authors.
- evaluates the strengths and/or weaknesses of the argument. This could include strengths or weaknesses based on quality of evidence, on bias or objectivity, depth or superficiality, etc.
