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Types of Annotated Bibliographies

• These annotations can be descriptive, summative, evaluative, reflective, or any combination of those four.
• Which ever type of annotation you choose to use; stick to that type throughout the whole annotated bibliography. The above four, or any combination of the four, is not for you to select from per each annotation. Make the whole bib consistent
• After the listing of the different types, there is a generic, skeletal combination of them that seems to work best.
  1. Descriptive
     • Describes the source and pertinent information or quotes
  2. Summative
     • sums up the source
  3. Evaluative
     • judges the ethos of the source and its validity to aiding in your research (beyond all of th esources that may , or will, help your research, sometimes you'll need to add a well-known work and say how it has little to no connection with your research. This is counter-intutive; why would I have an annotation for a source that doesn't help my research? If your research is about vaccines, and you plan on discussing the "sources" that anti-vaxxers use, you would need to annotate the source of Andrew Wakefield et al (1998), a poorly done research study that erronouesly connected autism to vaccines, of which antivaxxers still tout.
  4. Reflective
     • Write asserttions of how the research connects directly to your research.
  5. A Combination Annotated bibliography
  • In 2 or 3 sentences describe the source (Not all sources, such as all websites and all journals, are known by everyone connected to your research). This part is just good practice to write to help you seat firmly in memory the source and its typical contents.
    • What is the purpose of that website or journal?
    • What kind of articles does the website or journal typically have?
    • From what disciplines (think names of degrees: psychology, chemistry, architecture, etc) do the articles come?
  • 2-3 sentences summarize the whole or parts of a source. What does the article, page, or book chapter discuss.
  • 2-3 sentences Reflection of what in the source directly connects to your research and how does it connect.
  • Lastly lead-into and give the quoted passage of something that was memorable or germaine to your research.