Annotated Bibliography Tips

  • Follow the guidelines set in the NHD Rule Book, particularly the use of hanging indent.
  • Remember to divide and alphabetize your works cited list into Primary Source and Secondary Source categories.
  • You need a minimum of 5 primary sources actively used to create your project.
  • You should have 5 secondary sources.
  • All images used in your project must be cited!

Example

  • On the following page is an abbreviated example of an annotated bibliography in MLA format to help you with your own.
  • Pay particular attention to the annotations. Note that they are longer than one sentence AND address how the information was used to make the project.

Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources

Plate 1. C. 1400. Codex Borgia, Vatican Library. Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the

Ancient Mexican Manuscript. Ed. Giselle Diaz. Philadelphia: Dover Publications, 1993. 1-2.

This book has full-color reproductions of paintings from the ancient Maya depicting daily life and ritual practices common to the civilization. I used Plate 1 on my exhibit to illustrate how bloody the Mayan sacrifices were and to briefly compare them to Aztec and Incan rituals.

Unknown Photographer. El Castillo. Mysterious Places. 01 Dec. 2015

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This is a photograph of the large Mayan ziggurat at Chichen Itza known as El Castillo. I used this photograph on my backboard because it is the most well-known and best-preserved ziggurat in Mayan Mexico and has a sacrificial alter inside the temple. This will help viewers visualize the impact of monumental architecture during religious rites.

Secondary Sources

Okeowo, Alexis. "Portal to Maya Underworld Found in Mexico?" Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines | National Geographic News. 08 Aug. 2008. National Geographic. 04 Dec. 2008 <

This article explained the recently discovered underground world of caverns and sacrifices attributed to the Maya. The desperation of the Maya in times of drought was very apparent with each subsequent level below ground. This article was very useful in clarifying Mayan religious connections to the earth, water and sky, and why the Mayan people performed certain rituals for their gods. I used this information to connect Mayan rituals with deeper religious ideologies.

Pinchbeck, Daniel. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011.

This book did not turn out to be as useful as I hoped. It had substantial evidence about Mayan religion but there was more information about Mayan predictions for the end of the world than I needed. I included some of these details and a quote to illustrate how Cortez was mistakenly identified as the god, Quetzalcoatl.