Annotated Bibliography Example

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One student (and friend) named Igdalia from CSU Stanislaus sent this example over of an annotated bibliography for an upper-division Shakespeare class. While the assignment for the research paper will not be based on literature, the format looks the same.



When Igdalia and I knew each other, I attended graduate school at CSU Stanislaus and she took lower-division English courses. Igdalia currently studies as a senior-level English major. If all goes well, she will graduate this semester.

To this day, she still asks for writing advice and sends Facebook messages at 2 a.m. seeking help on her essays.

Unfortunately, she does not always receive the most helpful response!

Picking a Research Paper Topic and Narrowing It Down

Students are allowed to choose their own research paper topic in hopes they remain interested in the essay. After all, for most students taking English 101, 4-7 pages is a lot. By picking a relatable subject, they can hopefully become more involved in the process.

Last semester, the department warned not to let students choose any topic, and especially not abortion. I never listened, and as they warned, many students reverted to abortion (because I'm guessing they wrote essays about abortion in high school).

This time around, students can go with most any topic as long as there is an argument, but not abortion, marijuana or the legal drinking age.

Why should there be an argument? Well, while it has only been two semesters, it seems like students revert back to the "pro and con" essay without any real stance or conclusion. They want to summarize the sides and say there are positives and negatives with nothing to add. Students constantly use this strategy in in-class essays.

For this one, make an argument even if it is not a personal belief. If the reader (which is me) can be convinced, then for this class that is what matters.

What if I wanted to write about cellphones or smartphones?

I need to ask a question.

Is there a correlation between using smartphones in class and receiving poor grades?

I'm going to turn that into an argument.

Students who use smartphones in class are more likely to receive poor grades. Yet, some professors continue to let such activity go on despite the overwhelming evidence of lower scores.

What is going on? Students receive poor grades.

How is this happening? They use smartphones in class.

Why is this important to study? overwhelming evidence of lower scores

Now, some professors like to teach their students to go through the research before coming up with the thesis statement. Students can take that route too.

The research may change the thesis statement.

Maybe almost every legitimate article out there argues the benefits of smartphone usage in class. Then, the thesis statement may change depending on whether those articles or books convinced me of their position. 

Alternatively, those articles which go against the initial thesis statement created can be proven wrong, possibly by doing more research and finding a study which contradicts those authors' findings.

By going through the process of the annotated bibliography, students are seeing what the other opinions out there are first, and that will affect the final product of the research paper.

In-Class Essay Story/Tips

Once at CSU Stanislaus, they made me take an "in-class essay," or rather a mandatory Writing Proficiency Exam required for upper-division English courses, on a Saturday morning for a fee. I had this crazy idea that a second bachelor's degree would puff up the GPA so I could enter graduate school, and taking this timed essay would allow entry into upper-division English courses at their school.

Anyways, the prompt asked "What is the worst job you have ever had or imagine having?"

Students might remember this from Blackboard No.1.

My response was "Administering this essay is the worst job I can imagine..."

Of course, if I gave it more thought, I'm sure I could think of something else. My main objective was completing the essay though with a topic that could reach a certain number of pages within the required time frame. Whether or not I believed the people giving out the test had the worst job, I knew I could make an arguable essay out of the idea.

Also, writing an outline on the side before writing the essay helped with the organization. This only took a few seconds.

A lot of students at this school revert to the 3-point/5-paragraph in-class essay model (and even for their take-home essays). It is not technically wrong, although there is no rule stating there must be three points in the thesis statement or five paragraphs overall.

Instructors at the lower levels make students write this way to help students understand the essay structure, but in graduate school we used to laugh at the five-paragraph model.

To conclude, remember the main objective is writing a sound essay, whether or not the essay is something one personally believes in.

In addition, it is much more interesting to read an essay that takes a definitive stance, rather than one where the author states off the bat "there are pros and cons to this topic...and no definite answer..but here are the pros and cons."

The in-class essays in this class are not graded harshly. In fact, I've been way too kind with them compared to the take-home essays.

The points above are just tips to keep in mind in higher writing courses.

Changing "is" to a Stronger Verb

While we practiced changing "is" to a stronger verb in class, it might help to explain in writing why it makes the essay stronger.

Using a verb that better conveys the action of the sentence makes the sentence more interesting to the reader!

For example, students will need to use outside sources for their Research Paper. Some students might try to use "is" to refer to what the author communicates.

This author is trying to tell readers how the economy will fail soon.

Instead, try rewriting the above sentence with a stronger verb...

This author tries to tell readers how the economy will fail soon.

This author attempts to tell readers how the economy will fail soon.

Readers can be impatient compared to someone who is listening to a spoken argument. If they read smaller words such as "is" they get bored quickly.

In addition, sometimes it becomes tiresome to see the same words over and over again in an essay. If the author uses a wide variety of words, the reader will appreciate it.

One more example...

The instructor for this class is more strict on essays than last semester.

The instructor for this class grades essays more strictly than last semester.

It looks and sounds better for the reader to see "grades" instead of "is" as the verb.

Eliminating "is" completely might be impossible, especially for students at the English 101 level (whether they are in the MW class or TTH), but cutting down on the verb will help essays from a stylistic standpoint. The effort will be noticed.

Revised April Schedule

Several tweaks were made to the April schedule.

Mapping out what the class will do in April and the accompanying due dates four months beforehand is not easy. Here is the new schedule...

Revised April Schedule

MW 9:10 and 10:25 classes
March 30 - LIB 114

April 4 - In-class Essay No. 4

April 6 - Blackboard #10

April 11 - Annotated Bibliography

April 13 - Introduction to Research Paper (to share with neighbor and just so I can see it's not way off)
April 13 - Blackboard #11

April 20 - Rough Draft (hopefully a longer one)

April 27 - Research Paper Final Draft
April 27 - In-class Essay No. 5

TTH ESL 8:40 class

Revised March/April Schedule
March 31 - LIB 114

April 5 - In-class Essay No. 4

April 7 - Blackboard #10

April 12 - Quiz No. 4, Annotated Bibliography

April 14 - Introduction to Research Paper (to share with neighbor and so I can see it's not way off)
April 14 - Blackboard #11

April 21 - Quiz No. 5, Rough Draft (hopefully a longer one)

April 28 - Research Paper Final Draft
April 28 - In-class Essay No. 5

Then, we part ways! Forever.

Annotated Bibliography Directions

Annotated Bibliography (40 Points)

(Work on this before the Research Paper)

•Also known as an “Annotated Works Cited”

•Due Dates 

MW Classes: April 11
TTH ESL:        April 12

•Accepted late for a 10-point penalty

•Underneath each source entry is a description of the source and justification for why it’s used for the Research Paper. Needs to be one substantial paragraph each!

•3 or more sources (at least 2 must be “academic”)

•The sources will be the same ones used for the Research Paper.

•MLA Format

•*You are not tied down to the sources used for this. The Annotated Bibliography is meant to encourage students to start their research earlier.

Research Paper Directions

Research Paper (200 Points)

•Choose your own topic and make an argument!

•MLA Format 4-7 pages

•Due by last class meeting (physical copy)
MW Classes: April 27
TTH ESL:        April 28

•Alternatively, it can be turned into my box in the Humanities Office by April 29

•Bring Introduction on April 13 (to share with neighbor)

       MW Classes: April 13
TTH ESL:        April 14

•Bring Rough Draft on April 20

       MW Classes: April 20
TTH ESL:        April 21

•Needs 3 or more overall sources (2 must be “academic”)

•Proper in-text citation (cite all quotations, statistics, unusual facts)

•Must demonstrate quote integration from outside sources

•Works Cited page required

•*Restrictions*

•No abortion, legal drinking age or marijuana topics allowed