From Professor Beckwith:

An annotation both describes and evaluates a research source in order to help other researchers decide whether to read a text in full and/or to incorporate it into their work. This is what others in our class will be deciding based on the information you provide. Aim for a paragraph of 3-4 sentences that clearly indicates the essence of a source’s argument or purpose, perhaps in the following manner:
 
    1.    Lead in – what the source sets out to do. This part can be brief. What you need is one sentence that really sets us up for/ leads directly into -  what the source concludes (this is what’s important to show).

    2.    Show some details or one important note in particular regarding method(s) used to arrive at the source’s conclusion - perhaps types of studies cited.

    3.    Inferable or best suited audience for the source – think in terms of what other researchers in your topic field might be looking for, or what research goal(s) they might have.

    4.    Source’s approach to your topic. In order to help fellow researchers make a quick decision about whether or not they would like to look more extensively at this source, briefly indicate the type of research approach this source offers your own research, what is especially striking and/or missing in its coverage of your topic, and if there is a particular bias that one should take into consideration.

• Citing your sources means giving credit to facts and unique ideas that you have chosen to borrow in order to help you make your own statements and conclusions. 

• Citing your sources properly makes you a responsible scholar.

• To show your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information.

• It provides the reader an opportunity to look up the citation being referenced, for further understanding of the topic and for further analysis. 

• Citations are a short way to uniquely identify a published work (e.g. book, article, chapter, website).  They are found in bibliographies and reference lists and are also collected in article and book databases. 

• Not citing your sources, or borrowing quotes, unique ideas, and phrases that belong to someone else is considered plagiarism. (ex: turning in a paper without a “works cited” or bibliography).

• We cite sources by using one of the various citation styles depending on the discipline of study (ex: MLA, APA, Chicago, etc).

• One-inch margins on your paper.

• The title should be: Annotated Bibliography for X group

• Source (i.e book, article, etc) citation 

• Leave a double space between the source citation and the annotation

• The annotation should be single spaced

• Leave a double space between annotations

• Don’t forget the hanging indent for each source citation!!!! 

• Place all your sources in alphabetical order

Chicago Style citations consist of standard elements and contain all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including (in order):

• Author name(s)

• Titles of books, articles

• Title of newspaper or journal in italics

• Volume and issue numbers (articles) 

• Date of publication

• Publisher (books)

• City of publication (books)

• Date of access (for online articles)

• page numbers

• URL of DOI (for some online sources such as articles and webpages)