annotated biblography title page in apa 6th edition

annotated biblography title page in apa 6th edition

The Importance of Annotated Bibliography in APA 6th Edition

1. Introduction

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. The annotation should not only summarize the source, but also assess its usefulness to your paper. It is almost like a mini-essay in itself. An annotated bibliography helps you become a better researcher. In order to write one, you have to look through copious amounts of resources and analyze the information you have found. This is not easy, and it is never quick. Annotated bibliographies do not have to be torture. They can actually help you find more sources on your topic. Often by taking a look at the sources cited in an article, you can find another article on your topic. This often leads to you finding a source that is better than the one you had originally and raises new questions or approaches when researching your topic. Annotated bibliographies also can link to assess. You can compare how you have analyzed your sources with how others have done so. This can be helpful if you are trying to come up with new ideas and new ways of approaching a topic.

2. Benefits of Annotated Bibliography

Annotated bibliographies have many benefits in the learning process. According to the book, “Writing an Annotated Bibliography,” they provide the reader with a first glimpse of your research. Abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles or in periodical indexes. Annotations are descriptive and critical; they may describe the author’s point of view, authority, or clarity and appropriateness of expression. The first paragraph provides a brief summary of the author’s project in the book, covering the main points of the work. The second paragraph points out the project’s strengths and evaluates its methods and presentation. This helps the reader of your bibliography to determine the best methods in locating a specific category of resource. It is a concise and often vague guide. In creating an annotation, the student also makes evaluative comments on the central theme of the resource, which can be wildly different from the suggested topic. It is therefore up to the student to note any deviations or changes in his/her project, taking note of the gap. This allows the student to obtain maximum clarity on the quality of his/her choice. Annotations also help categorize and critically evaluate research. This is particularly useful in sorting through printouts/html pages of resources on the often ambiguous and multi-sided topic formulated today. Through the process of evaluation and selection, the student also defines his/her research topic more precisely in creating a thesis statement. Finally, the annotation helps the researcher think twice about his resources and save a hectic and confused re-evaluation of resources right before the due date, upgrading to the next level of thinking of how they have changed their mind on the topic themselves.

3. Guidelines for Creating an Annotated Bibliography in APA 6th Edition

We recommend using a persuasive tone in your annotations. There are two purposes behind doing this: firstly, to give the author the chance to inform the reader why the source was chosen, and why it is relevant to the study. Secondly, to inform the reader on the significance of the source, and how it might be beneficial to their study. An author should take time to look carefully at the content of the source, and try to evaluate it, and judge it rather than just accepting it at face value. It’s enough to ask oneself whether this is a convincing source and why? Was the author biased or unbiased? These are the sorts of questions that will lead an author to creating a strong critique of the source. Most importantly, the annotations should be following the citation. Too often, students only write down the citation for the source. However, it is necessary to read the source in its entirety, understand it, and then re-write the source in one’s own words– and for the purpose of an annotated bibliography, the latter is the most important. By doing this, the author will have a much clearer understanding of the source, as well as a better grasp of what is written. The process of re-writing the source in one’s own words is a paraphrase. Often students are confused about the differences between a paraphrase and a summary. A paraphrase is a re-writing of the same information written in one’s own words– it has the same level of detail as the original passage.

4. Examples of Annotated Bibliography Entries

Henson, S., Luedtke, G., & Heisick, J. E. (2006). DNA fingerprinting for confirmation of human salmonellosis to Salmonella Bareilly. Journal of Infection, 53, 237-240. Retrieved February 28, 2006, from Science Direct: [Link] This is typical in a medical journal referring to human case studies; there isn’t a whole lot of summary preceding the findings, which is essentially what the patient has. Case 1 says a 20-year-old housewife developed polyarthralgia, myalgia, and a fever after three days. The symptoms were migratory and persisted for weeks. The title here basically serves as the summary, skipping introduction information.

Here are examples of annotated bibliography entries in APA format. This annotated bibliography includes an APA References list followed by an annotated bibliography sample for each source. The sample includes a summary, analysis, and application, as well as the citation information. You can view the full article (or site) by clicking on the underlined link. All one needs is a snake bite, and there’s little chance for the poor victim without proper treatment and diagnosis to survive. Such is the way with salmonellosis, a very general term used to describe the disease and its symptoms caused by any of the rod-shaped, Gram-negative bacteria belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae, known as Salmonella. Identified as the first recorded Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern of DNA from the women, two samples from different patients contained strains of S. Bareilly indistinguishable from the outbreak pattern.

5. Conclusion

According to the authors, that’s what an annotated bibliography is. It’s a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. Annotations are descriptive and critical. They may describe the author’s point of view, authority, or clarity and appropriateness of expression. The authors of this article stress the importance of proper documentation and content analysis through their overview and analyses of what an annotated bibliography consists of. This article is beneficial to my research because it goes through the process of writing an annotated bibliography. It tells the truth about what part of an annotated bibliography is the most time-consuming and stressful. Although it is an accurate analysis, the only way to experience the stress of writing the annotated bibliography is by starting it a day before it’s due. But the article continues to say that writing the bibliography can be time-consuming and stressful, with the end result being unsatisfactory. Another key point in the article comes during its discussion of different forms of annotated bibliographies. The article makes a point to say some professors require one to write a descriptive annotation. An analytical annotation goes a step further by evaluating the content. The thing that falls short in some annotated bibliographies is adding value to the annotation in a way to help the reader determine the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the cited sources. Although annotated bibliographies can be subjective on what is considered an acceptable adding value, it is important to consider what an annotation will look like to the reader. An added value to an annotation could mean a well-summarized paragraph and an evaluation, which is what a reader wants to help decide whether or not to use a source. In conclusion, the article is consistent in providing information and truth about what an annotated bibliography is. From the details of what an annotated bibliography is to the different forms it can take, it gives an in-depth understanding of what an annotated bibliography is. Time and stress are something a student is never without when writing an annotated bibliography, and this article is good in preparing someone for the task at hand. The information and insight a student gains from the analysis of a cited example will make the task of writing an annotated bibliography far less dreadful, knowing there is some sort of reputable blueprint to follow. Finally, the authors of this article have provided guidance to the importance of adding value to an annotated bibliography. With those pointers in mind, it is clear that this article can be a useful tool to which a reader can evaluate the quality of their annotated bibliography.