Citations and Bibliographies

The purpose of an annotation is to describe the cited material. It should provide sufficient information about the source to remind you of the source's content.

Annotations:

• summarize the source
• assess or evaluate the source
• reflect on the source’s possible uses for the project at hand

Consider Including:

• What you learned from the source.
• The main subject of the source and any key points/findings it presents.
• Why this source is valuable to your research and/or how you might use this source.
• Any points of consideration that you uncovered during your CRAAP evaluation (ie: possible bias, age of source, etc.).
• What type of source it is.

As you summarize the source for the annotation, pay particular attention to these main points:

1) Author

What is the author’s occupation, position, education, experience, etc.? Is the author qualified (or not) to write the article?

2) Author’s purpose

What is the purpose for writing the article or doing the research?

3) Intended audience

To what audience is the author writing? Is it intended for the general public, for scholars, students, policy makers, professionals, practitioners, etc.

4) Author bias

Does the author make assumptions upon which the rationale of the article or research rests? What are they?

5) Methodology

How was the study conducted?

6) Author’s conclusions

Are the conclusions justifiable? Are the conclusions supported by the data?

7) Features

Are there bibliographies, charts, questionnaires, etc. If not, should there be?

EasyBib an interactive citation tool.

Landmark's Citation Machine an interactive citation tool.

Zotero an interactive citation tool that lives in your browser.