2. Welcome!
Hi everyone! I know working on an Annotated
Bibliography can be intimidating (especially if you have
never done one before), so I made these slides to help
break them down a little more!
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3. What is an Annotated
Bibliography (AB)?
○ An Annotated Bibliography is a list of sources (a
Bibliography) with notes included (called
annotations) that summarize, evaluate, and explain
how you use a source in your essay.
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4. Important Note!
○ Your AB is a separate assignment from your paper,
so in your essay, you will still have a References page.
○ Even though they are two different assignments, you
will use the same sources for both your AB and your
essay.
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5. Sample Annotated
Bibliography
○ Your AB should include 5 sources, so you will have 1
annotation for each of your sources.
○ Your AB would have a total of 5 annotations (1 for
each source).
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6. 4 Parts to Every
Annotation
1. APA Citation for Source.
2. Summary (2-3 sentences) explaining what the
source is about.
3. Evaluation (5 sentences) explaining how you know
this source is credible and why.
4. Your Use (1-2 sentences) explaining how you are
planning to use this source in your essay.
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9. Working Thesis
Statement
○ Your AB should start with your Working Thesis
statement at the top of your first page.
○ Your Working Thesis is the thesis statement that you
are using for your overall paper.
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10. Let’s Look at an Example
○ Let’s say you were writing a paper for ENG 101 and
you found this article: “Mourning Hong Kong’s
Democracy.”
○ We will walk through how you would complete an
annotation for this source.
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11. 1. APA Citation
○ Figure out what kind of source you are citing
(magazine, website, journal, etc.).
○ Create the full APA citation for your source.
○ You can get help with your APA citations by checking
out the SCC APA Guide:
https://libguides.sccsc.edu/APA
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12. Citing Our Article
○ The article “Mourning Hong Kong’s Democracy” is an
example of a website article.
○ The APA Citation would read:
Wang, M. (2022, June 29). Mourning Hong Kong’s democracy. Human Rights
Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/29/mourning-hong-
kongs-democracy
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13. 2. Summary
○ The summary is where you will explain to your reader
(in 2-3 sentences) what your source is going to be
about.
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14. A Summary for Our
Article
○ A summary for our article would look like:
This article reflects upon the 25th anniversary of China regaining control
over Hong Kong from the British. When China took control of Hong Kong
in 1997, the government promised to respect the city’s freedoms; a
promise that was never met. The article discusses how the people of Hong
Kong will resist and protest the anniversary celebrations.
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15. 3. Evaluation
○ The evaluation is the longest and biggest part of your
AB.
○ This is where you will look at the author, publisher,
date, evidence, and bias of an article to prove the
article’s credibility.
○ Remember to write about all elements (5 total) of a
source in your evaluation.
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16. How Do You Find the
Information for your
Annotations?
○ There are a few places you will find information for your
annotations:
□ Google: Google the name of your author/publisher to learn
more about them.
□ The Article: Look at the article to find information about
the date and evidence.
□ Your Own Analysis: Thinking about all of the above
elements (author, publisher, date, evidence), consider any
bias your source has, based on those elements.
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17. Looking Up Author
○ The author of the Article is Maya Wang.
○ I clicked on her name in the article and was taken to
her profile on the Human Rights Watch website.
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18. Looking Up Author
(cont.)
○ I learned Maya Wang is the associate director in the Asia
division at Human Rights Watch.
○ She was researched and written many articles about issues in
China and is regularly quoted in international publications like
Washington Post. She specifically focuses on human rights in
Hong Kong.
○ Based on her expertise in this topic, I would consider her an
expert on Human Rights issues in Hong Kong.
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19. Sample Author
Evaluation
○ An evaluation of our author would look like:
The author of this article, Maya Wang, would be a credible author
to write about human rights issues in Hong Kong, because she is
the associate director of the Asia division at Human Rights Watch.
Wang has significant experience researching and publishing
articles about China, with an emphasis in articles about human
rights issues in Hong Kong. Wang is regularly quoted in
international publications such as the Washington Post.
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20. Looking Up the
Publisher
○ Next, I need to look up where this article was published (Human
Rights Watch).
○ When looking up publishers, you can look at a source’s “About
Us” page on their website to see what they say about
themselves.
○ However, sometimes a website might only present themselves in
the best light possible (which may not be the most accurate…).
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21. Use 3rd Party Sources for
Publisher Information
○ It can be helpful to turn to Google to find more neutral
information about a publisher.
○ Wikipedia can be a good place to verify publisher information or
to find a more balanced view of the publisher.
○ Wikipedia mentions how Human Rights Watch is a non-
government organization that does research on human rights
issues. Human Rights Watch has be the recipient of the Nobel
Peace Prize.
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22. Sample Publisher
Evaluation
○ An evaluation of our publisher would look like:
○ This article was published by Human Rights Watch, a Nobel
Peace Prize-winning, non-government organization that
focuses on researching human rights issues across the world.
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23. Looking Up the Date
○ Pay attention to when your article was published,
because you want to make sure the article is not
outdated.
○ Our article was published in June 2022.
○ This means the information should be up-to-date.
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24. Sample Date
Evaluation
○ An evaluation of our date would look like:
○ This article was published in June 2022, making the
information in the article very recent and not
outdated.
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25. Looking Up Evidence
○ When we think about evidence, we are looking for
how the author proves their argument in the article.
○ Look for a References page, statistics, or other
studies/articles references in the article.
○ If you are looking at website or news sources, they
will often not have a formal References page.
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26. Looking Up Evidence
(cont.)
○ The article does not have a formal References page.
○ Links to other articles from Human Rights Watch and
other sources like Reuters.
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27. Sample Evidence
Evaluation
○ An evaluation of the article’s evidence would look
like:
○ While the article does not contain a formal References page,
Wang links to other articles throughout the article. The
additional articles linked are from credible sources such as
Reuters and Human Rights Watch. Wang also uses specific
examples to show how the people of Hong Kong are resisting
the Chinese rule.
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28. Looking Up Bias
○ Bias is the perspective that an article is taking in how
they present their information. Is the author only
looking at one side of the argument?
○ Bias can be influenced by the author or publisher
(such as where they word or who published the
information).
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29. Sample Bias Evaluation
○ An evaluation of the article’s bias would look like:
○ Because Human Rights Watch is a non-government
organization is it free from any political bias that might
influence how this information is being presented.
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30. 3. Your Use
○ Your Use is where you will explain in 1-2 sentences
about how you plan to use this source in your paper.
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31. Your Use of the Article
○ Your Use of the article would look like:
○ I would use this article to discuss the current attitude toward
the Chinese government’s rule over Hong Kong. The article
would provide examples of resistance from Hong Kong
residents.
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32. Extra AB Help
Resources
○ APA Annotated Bibliography Guide: https://libguides.sccsc.edu/AB-
APA
○ Sample AB: https://libguides.sccsc.edu/ld.php?content_id=60965408
○ AB Extra Help Worksheet:
https://libguides.sccsc.edu/ld.php?content_id=66584917
○ AB Help Video:
https://spartanburg.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?i
d=7f455afe-79d2-48bc-9d5f-ae9201295771
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34. CREDITS
Special thanks to all the people who made and released
these awesome resources for free:
○ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
○ Photographs by Unsplash
○ Backgrounds by SubtlePatterns
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