English 102

Leek

The Annotated Bibliography

Deadlines:Initial Annotated Bib is due on Friday, March 5

Finalized Annotated Bib (if different from initial) is due in your folder with the final draft of your We-Search paper. If you did not change any sources from your initial Annotated Bib, you do not have to revise it.

Characteristics:

  • Alphabetical list of sources that are related to your topic
  • First part of entry contains all info that you will need for your Works Cited page (Use NoodleBib to help you with this!)
  • Second part of each entry is 1 chunky paragraph (indented) that does the following:
  • introduces the author and explains this person’s credibility as a source
  • explains the purpose of the source
  • contains a brief, but complete, well-written summary of the text. If the text is full of jargon, you need to translate it to a language your readers can understand.
  • contains speculation (and justification, if necessary) about how/why this text will be useful for you and why it is relevant to your essay.
  • Contains information as to whether this is a primary or secondary source and to whether it’s a scholarly or popular source.
  • Double-spaced

Purpose:

  • The Annotated Bib helps you gather, organize, and analyze information before you begin writing.
  • Additionally, it acts as a resource guide for you as you’re writing. It can tell you at a glance which source contains what information, viewpoints, etc.

Audience:

  • Your classmates and me. This means you need to use an academic tone which incorporates language that we can all understand, even if we’re not familiar with your topic and your sources.

ADDITIONALLY: Although this paper isn’t a typical research paper, you will research more efficiently if you have a working thesis statement that focuses on the topic you’ve chosen to investigate and what you want to say about that topic. Your working thesis statement might evolve as you write, but you need to be able to concretely state your argument at this point. Your argument, roughly, would finish a sentence that is something like: Twilight’s popularity is due to/the result of…

 MORE 

EXAMPLES: Here are two examples of what I’m looking for. I created the WC citations using NoodleBib. I had to ask Elinor some questions for clarification. You might need to, too. Don’t be shy!

1) Seger, Linda. "Creating the Myth." Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular
Culture for Writers. Ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. 6th ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. 356 - 364. Print. Excerpt from Making a Good
Script Great. N.p.: n.p., 1987.

This text is an excerpt from a screenwriting book. Linda Seger is a script consultant and a screenwriting coach who has published several books about scriptwriting, and her book was originally written to help writers improve their screenplays. I found this text in an anthology, which is an educational secondary source, but it was originally in a commercial secondary source. The text is focused on the fact that successful screenplays are based on stories that have universal appeal, and that these stories have certain kinds of heroes that audiences recognize and can identify with. The article explains what Seger calls “The Hero Myth,” which is a step-by-step plan of any hero’s journey. It also explains that there are other kinds of myths. Last, Seger discusses typical characters that we see interact with the hero. I think this is a good source for me because I’m going to discuss how Edward, a vampire, is seen as a hero in Twilight in a few different ways. This is a very different take on the traditional vampire, and I will use quotes from this text to explain one of the reasons why Twilight is so popular: the vampire is not seen (by the heroine or the audience) as evil or damned, but as a protector and even as a savior.

2) Seltzer, Sarah. "Sexual Longing in an Ab-Only World: The Twilight Saga." The Huffington Post. Huffingtonpost.com, 9 Aug. 2008. Web. 24 Feb. 2010.

This article was originally published on a website called RHRealityCheck.org, which is a website devoted to reproductive health. However, I pulled it from the Huffington Post website, which is a liberal news website and blog. The Huffington Post is a popular, secondary source. Sarah Seltzer is a freelance writer who focuses on gender and pop culture. Although the article is from 2008, it is appropriate for my paper. It comments on the success of the Twilight Saga, and both praises and condemns it. Part of this article focuses on the sexuality/abstinence in the first book. For my paper, I am interested in Seltzer’s comments about the heated, but chaste, relationship between Bella and Edward, and how it is Edward who guards her chastity with “overprotective zeal.” This is a different angle I can use when I discuss the vampire as a modern hero and will add to why I think Twilight has been such a success.