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Politics and Government

This guide is meant to point researchers in the direction of commonly-used politics & government resources available at Illinois State University. There are also descriptions of general search strategies to use those resources.

Creating an Annotated Bibliography

What is an annotated bibliography?:

Annotated bibliographies are lists of sources, with a brief description of the source below each item. Basically, it is a references list with a descriptive paragraph below each citation

 

What Components are necessary to create an annotation?

Citation: This should be the full APA citation for the resource. It should look identical to citations found in a references list at the end of a paper. Each citation should be alphabetical order.

Annotation: This is a short paragraph (or two), describing, analyzing, and critiquing each resource. The annotation goes directly below the citation. The annotation should be more in-depth than just a summary. There should be an analysis of the resource that goes along with the description. The annotations shouldn't just describe what the source is about, but also how it adds evidence to your specific research question. What is unique about the information presented in this source that will help build an argument? There should also be an evaluative description of the resource that discusses the appropriateness of the resource. It should answer questions like currency, author credibility, suitability of source type, types of evidence presented, and source objectivity.

Other Annotated Bibliography Resources:

Example Annotations