This document provides instructions for an annotated bibliography assignment for an English 102H college writing course. Students are asked to identify at least eight sources on their research topic that represent different perspectives. For each source, students must provide an MLA citation followed by a commentary summarizing the source, describing its rhetorical context and intended audience, and evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, and usefulness for the assignment. The annotated bibliography will help students become familiar with secondary research on their topic before writing a critical paper. It will be graded based on the relevance, comprehensiveness, quality, and format of the source annotations.

1. English 102H College Writing and Rhetoric
Annotated Bibliography Assignment
Purpose
The Annotated Bibliography assignment is designed to help you become familiar
with the secondary research and commentary relating to your problem. It requires
you to identify and read your sources before you start writing your Critical
Conversation paper.
Description
A bibliography is an alphabetized list of sources referred to in an academic work. An
annotated bibliography (often produced before writing a research-oriented paper)
includes annotations, or comments, on each source.
Your Annotated Bibliography should include at least eight (8) annotated sources
that represent a variety of different perspectives and arguments about your
problem (think stakeholders). Include an MLA citation for each source followed by
your commentary covering these areas:
• Summary
o Summarize the argument and major points in order of importance.
• Rhetorical Information
o What kind of source (scholarly article, website, etc.) is it? What is
the author’s purpose for writing and who is the intended
audience? What is the author’s stance toward the topic (objective,
biased, etc)?
• Evaluation
o What are the strengths and weaknesses of the source? How
persuasive do you find the argument? (Consider the use of reasons,
evidence, and citations, as well as the assumptions underlying the
argument/position.) How useful is it for your purpose? How might
you use it?
Grading Criteria
• Focus: each source is related to the research question.
• Comprehensiveness: taken together, the sources represent all of the
significant perspectives on the research question.
• Content of Annotations:
o Summarize content objectively and accurately, and include the
author’s conclusion about the topic.
o Provide enough rhetorical information to demonstrate its
appropriateness for the research question, if necessary.
o Evaluate the effectiveness of the argument and use of evidence.
o Demonstrate an exploration of how the source may be used for the
multi-source persuasive paper.
• Format: demonstrates correct MLA style.

2. English 102H College Writing and Rhetoric
• Readability: written in clear, correct prose style appropriate for academic
writing.