DANC 3630: Dance History

An annotated bibliography (sometimes called structured research notes) is a way of organizing and describing sources on a single topic or that contribute toward answering a specific research question. In a nutshell, an annotated bibliography is a list of citations and summaries—usually just one paragraph long—for each source. The annotation summary gives an overview of the source's content and argument, an evaluation of the source's validity, and some details about how the source will help you answer your research question. 

Your professor will often give you a target number of sources that you need to include in your annotated bibliography. They will also often give directions about the kinds of sources your should use (for example, peer-reviewed articles, books, websites, etc.). Beyond this, you'll want to make sure the sources you choose have enough information to help you answer your research question. If you're not sure what sources to include in your annotated bibliography, here are some questions to think about:

• Do you need historical or background information? 
• Do you need statistical information?
• Do your sources represent multiple points of view? 
• Do you have sources for a counter-argument? (Where applicable.) 
• If you need current sources, are your sources up-to-date? 

Writing an annotated bibliography may be a step you take in the process of completing a larger research paper or project, or it might be the final project itself. Annotated bibliographies and structured research notes are helpful for aggregating research so that another person can learn about your topic and find relevant sources.

Your professor will likely give you specific instructions for an annotated bibliography or structured research notes assignment. This portion of the guide is meant to give you some general guidelines.

In most cases, annotations should be one paragraph long. Good annotations usually include:

• A summary of the source's main ideas and point.
  • What are the important facts of the source?
  • Why is the research valuable? 
• An evaluation of the source.
  • How does this source help you answer your unique research question?
  • Why do you find the source to be credible?

You may also want to include details about any connections to other sources or overarching themes. The annotation should form one complete paragraph. Annotations should be written mostly in your own words—you should only use direct quotes when absolutely necessary.

An annotated bibliography is a curated list of relevant sources, not just a list of sources found. Make sure you're only including sources that help you answer your research question. To make sure you're finding and understanding relevant sources, you may want to take notes as you read. This will help you identify the important points and create your annotated bibliography. Be able to identify:

• The overall argument the source is making
• How the author(s) arrived at their conclusions
• Where this article fits into the conversation surrounding your topic
• Elements you’d use in your own research (quotes, statistics, etc.)

To evaluate the source, you should read "around" the source, meaning you should investigate the:

• Author of the source
• Journal, publication, or publisher of the source
• Links included in the source or people quoted in the source
• Footnotes and bibliography

Because annotated bibliographies can require many sources, you might get overwhelmed by all the research you find. As you research, it's important to keep track of the citation information (authors, titles, journal titles, etc.) so that you can easily build your bibliography later and save copies of sources as you go—finding some sources a second time can be tricky.

Here are some ways to keep your sources organized:

• Keep good notes for each source, along with the source's citation information.
• Use folders to sort sources by sub-topic.
• Use online resources like the Citation Management Tools listed below.