Creating+Annotated+Bibiliographies

=Why are we doing this?=

Contrary to what you may be thinking, this assignment was not created purely to torture you. Research is an integral part of education in high school and especially in college. Here at PCHS, we try to conduct research in a way that each year will build on the last so that you don't wind up getting to 11th or 12th grade with no idea how to do research and feeling completely overwhelmed.

In English I, you create an annotated bibliography. This teaches you how to conduct research and how to check the reliability of sources. We make you do the annotations so that you can show that you've thoroughly read each source and that you understand how it will apply to your topic. It also helps you become familiar with MLA formatting and using a style guide. I know you may hate this part (most all of us do), but it helps protect intellectual property. If you wrote some amazing article or essay, would you want someone else to use it without giving you the credit you earned? By the time you get to English II, you'll be prepared for the next research stepping stone: The Research Paper. Writing this research paper helps prepare you for your most intensive research step yet, English III's Graduation Project. As you all know, the Graduation Project consists of a research paper, a product, a presentation, and a speech. If you master the steps in English I and II, you'll be that much further ahead when you get to your English III class. English IV requires a research component, but varies from teacher to teacher; it is usually some sort of research paper.

=What IS an annotated bibiliography?=

An annotated bibliography is essentially a Works Cited page that has sources with explanatory notes on them. For this class, I expect you to have **//AT LEAST//** four annotated sources on your Works Cited page. **//AT LEAST//** one of these sources must be print and **//AT LEAST//** one must be an online source. Each of your annotations needs to be a paragraph in length. (Remember that a paragraph has a minimum of 3-5 sentences.) I expect a paragraph summary of your source and then a one sentence analysis of your source. In this analysis, you should tell why that source is particularly important to your topic. An annotation is NOT the copying and pasting of a website into a word document with a citation for the site at the top. If you do this, you will not receive credit for your annotation. Your annotations really shouldn't include any direct quotes from your source. It is certainly fine for you to use quotes in your debate as long as you give the proper credit to the original author.

With all of that being said, your Works Cited page may be longer than just four sources because not all sources will require an annotation. For example, if you use a dictionary (either print or online) to get a definition, I do NOT want to read a paragraph summary of that definition; it is completely unnecessary. However, definitions can be a valuable debate tool--you want your audience to fully understand your topic--so if you use them, make sure that you still cite the dictionary from which the information came, just don't annotate it.

Your Works Cited page should meet the following criteria:
 * 1 inch margins on all four sides of the paper. (Research papers also follow this same format, so don't ever try to mess with margin width to increase the length of your paper. Teachers went to school, too; we'll call your bluff.)
 * "Works Cited" should be at the top of your page as your title. It should be centered but doesn't need to be in **bold** or //italicized// format.
 * Double-spaced.
 * Sources should be listed alphabetically by whatever comes first in your citation. Generally, this is the author's last name, however, some internet sources may not have available author names so go by whatever information comes next in the MLA citation format. Remember, using the Easy Bib website is one of the easiest ways to do this. You can do it all at once and then export your annotated bibliography to a Word Document. It will automatically put your Works Cited page in the correct format.
 * All sources must be in the Hanging Indent format. If you exported this as an entire document from Easy Bib, this will automatically be done. If not, you'll have to do this manually. To do this, make sure all of your works cited information is in a Word document. Highlight all the text (excluding the Works Cited title), right click, and go to paragraph. In this window, you'll see a middle section marked "Indentation." Within this section, you'll see "Special" with a drop down bar below it. The default setting is "(none)". You'll need to click the arrow in the drop-down bar and change it from "none" to "Hanging."
 * All text should be in 12 pt, Times New Roman font.
 * Don't fiddle with line spacing beyond the double-spacing. You shouldn't change the before/after line spacing.