Dr. Dean Taciuch
George Mason University
Spring 2010
English 302: N07 & N10
Annotated Bibliography
Evaluate five sources using the the following criteria:
- Relevance: Is the article on topic? Does it contain enough useful
information?
- Currency: Is the source recent and current? Has it been superseded
by more recent information? In some fields (Computer Science, for example)
sources can be out-of-date in a matter of months.
- Authority: What are the author's credentials? If there is no author, what
is the authority of the publisher?
- Audience: Who is the intended audience for this source? A peer-reviewed
article, for example, is usually intended for experts in the field, and
is generally very technical.
- Accuracy: Do other sources confirm the information? Are there factual
errors?
- Bias: Assume all sources have some degree of bias. Possible sources of
bias include observational, professional, methodological, theoretical, political,
and financial. Bias does not necessarily invalidate a source (although it
can if it leads the researcher to invalid conclusions).
- Logic: Does the source provide concrete, specific, representative examples?
If the source uses statistics: are the samples large enough? Are they representative?
- Usefulness:
This is a catch-all category. How might the source be used in your research?
For example, an out-of-date source might be used to give historical context.
Each annotation should be 1-2 paragraphs, typed and double spaced. Use the
following format:
Citation (any
appropriate style). The sources should be presented in alphabetical order
by author's last name.
Evaluation. The evaluations should be 1-2 ¶s each, doublespaced. You
should evaluate each source according to several of the criteria above; you
do not need to use all of the criteria for each source—use the criteria
you feel are relevant.
The grade will be based primarily on the evaluation (85%), secondarily on
the citation format (15%).
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons License.