Students will need to have a working bibliography for their research papers. This is a list of the sources that the student is considering using and all their publishing information. The difference between this bibliography and the final Works Cited page in the essay is that this list of sources will also have the student provide a descriptive evaluation of the book, web page, or article.

Please use the Research Project – Annotated Bibliography Template download for this assignment.

**Ultimately, you will decide whether or not you will use all of the sources in this bibliography for your Works Cited. You may find that you may not use one of the sources listed in this bibliography for your essay, so you would not included it in the Works Cited page of your final draft.

Assignment

For this assignment, you are to use FIVE TO SEVEN of the sources that you found from the “Library Online Finding Articles” workshop and use the template to create your own annotated bibliography. To create your own annotated bibliography, you can start with the Annotated Bibliography template  download. Please delete any unused placeholder text in the document.

**Remember the annotated bibliography must include:

1. 5-7 Sources listed in alphabetical order by author’s last name or title of the work, if no author is listed

2. Correct MLA 8 work cited entry format and information

3. Evaluation paragraph describing:

4. Describe how you will use the source in your paper.

What is the point that the author is trying to make? Will you use this source as evidence supporting your points or as part of the refutation and counter argument?

4. Describe why you consider this source trustworthy and reliable.

Is it from a reliable academic source?

If not, why do you think the information is valid?

5. Describe the author

mention whether or not he/she has won any awards and why you think he/she/they are credible.

6. Then evaluate the source in two sentences or less:

Does the information that the author presents seem accurate, dependable, and valid based on what is already known about the topic?

Purpose

To compile a list of current, reliable, authoritative, and point of view (unbiased) sources in an annotated bibliography that will aid the student in his/her/their research paper assignment. Students will need to include an evaluation paragraph for each source. 

Automatic Works Cited Generators

Students are welcome to use automatic works cited generators like Citation Machine (Links to an external site.) and EasyBib (Links to an external site.), but students must keep in mind:

1. Garbage in – garbage out: Whatever you put into the citation generator will just be spit out in an organized manner, it will not actually check for accuracy. 

2. Students must double-check their citations against their handbooks and/or The OWL at Purdue website. 

For more information about using citation generators, read this article “Using Citation Generators Responsibly “.