Annotated Bibliography
English 302
Evaluate five sources according to any of the following criteria:
- Currency: Is the source recent and current? Has it been superceded by more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can be out-of-date in a matter of months.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?
- Reliability: 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, theoretical, political, and financial. Bias
does not
necessarily invalidate a source (although it can if it leads the researcher
to invalid conclusions).
- 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 For example, an out-of-date source might be used to give historical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 sourceuse the criteria
you feel are relevant.
The grade will be based on the evaluation, not on the citation format.