How to write annotations
An annotation in this class has three parts:
- a citation,
- a short paragraph of text and
- a line retracing your search strategy.
The citation is where you list authors and titles or names, addresses and phone numbers depending on the type of source.
The text is part description of the work and part evaluation--YOUR evaluation.
The search strategy is a phrase detailing the resources and search terms you used to find the source.
Citation Format |
Author's Last, First Name, "Title of Chapter in Quotes." Title of Book in Italics. City: Publisher, Year. Call Number [See Just Citations for more examples.] |
Evaluative Text |
The very formal "citation" above is the bibliography half of an annotated bibliographic entry. It's the part you would put in a bibliography at the end of a paper. The paragraph that comes after, however, is what makes this an annotation. It is part summary, part opinion. You are telling other people whether this source is worth their time, but you're also trying to give them a quick survey of the source's contents. [Study Sample Annotations to really get the hang of these things.] |
Strategy Format |
Strategy
means "how I did it." Here informally
retrace the path you followed to get to the source; this is something
needed just for this class. An example of a strategy report for a
magazine article about teaching math on the Internet might read like
this: Education Abstracts> keyword search> Internet AND (math ADJ instruction) |
Other links
An Example:
(topic is Civil War reenacting)
Straubing,
Harold E., ed., Civil War Eyewitness Reports. Hamden, CT: Anchor
Books, 1985. (E 601.C52)
Athough
old, the book is timeless. The author has collected some thrilling excerpts
of diaries and journals from the era. Any one of the excerpts could provide
background for developing a role for a reenactment. One of the most bizarre
was the tale of a Union spy so loyal that when trapped behind Confederate
lines, he tried to protect his cover by shooting himself in the arm so
he could appear to have been wounded by the Yankees.
[Alice> subject search> Civil War—anecdotes]