Dr. Dean Taciuch
George Mason University
Fall 2011
English 302: N13 & N14
Annotated Bibliography
This assignment differs somewhat from the textbook. I want less summary,
and more evaluations in your Annotations. Evaluate five sources using the
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 Has it been superceded by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sources can be out-of-date in a matter of months.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, 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: Identify both deductive and inductive arguments in the source,
and examine them. Are the deductive arguments properly constructed? Are
the premises justified? Are inductive arguments supported by concrete,
specific, representative examples? Statistics are often used in inductive
arguments: 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 For example, an out-of-date source might be used to give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.
Sample Citation (MLA) and Evaluation
The grade will be based primarily on the evaluation (85%), secondarily on
the citation format (15%).