Annotated Bibliography and Thesis Statement
Your annotated bibliography is basically a listing of books with
short summaries of their contents. There is no fixed limit or
maximum for the number of books, nor is there a fixed limit or
maximum for the length of the summaries. Here are some
guidelines:
1. Decide on your Thesis
Come up with a thesis for your essay first. It does not have to be
detailed or final at this point; it only needs to point you in the
right direction. Keep in mind that it will probably change as you
do research, and you may discover that your conclusion was
incorrect. If you do discover that your thesis just won’t work,
consider changing it rather than discarding it.
Here is an example of a possible thesis for this course:
- The medieval Dutch introduction of large-scale water
management occurred in a Feudal economy, which was local,
scattered and small-scale, and thus did not lead to the
formation of a centralized, bureaucratic empire
2. Number of Books and Articles
The number of books and articles you need is related to your
thesis, broad theses require more sources, and narrow theses
require fewer. Once you have decided on a thesis, make a list of
several topics related to that thesis. Your topic list for our
sample thesis would look something like this:
- History of hydraulic engineering technology
o Books and articles dealing with the technologies used in
large-scale hydraulic engineering, you would be best
off finding sources dealing with different time periods
and places if possible.
- History of Holland
o A general history of Holland would be less desirable
than one specific to the time period (e.g. the Medieval
period)
- Ancient history
o The historical evidence for centralization and hydraulic
engineering technology in the ancient civilizations
- Agricultural history
o As hydraulic engineering was used for agriculture, a
general history of agriculture in this period would be
helpful.
There are a few general points to be made here. The first is that
the topic list will help you to find books, but you will discover
that many of these books will not be useful to you as they don’t
directly discuss your topic. I personally suggest that you:
a) Spend a few hours on the internet searching for library
books and articles about your subjects.
b) Spend a day in the library finding these books and
skimming them before checking them out, rather than
taking out one or two at a time, or taking out a ton of
books at once
As I said, there are no set in stone guidelines for the number of
books or articles you are required to use. I would expect you to
look at 2-3 books and 1-2 articles for each subject. For a topic
with more related subjects, I would expect more sources.
3. Using your Sources
Once you have a selection of books and articles that are relevant
to your thesis, read them. While you read these sources, I would
recommend that you:
a. Keep a statement of your thesis nearby, so you can
remind yourself of what you are looking for.
b. Write down references from the book that relate to your
thesis, in my example, any points that touch on the
subject of agriculture, hydrological engineering or
political structures. Bernal’s discussion of Feudalism
would be a good example (p 210)
4. Writing the Summaries
The idea of an annotated bibliography is to produce a list of
books with short summaries that make clear how these books
are related to your thesis. You are not expected to summarize
the entire book, only the main points that are relevant to your
argument. Since you will already have a list of point form
references from your readings, you can use these to construct
short summaries for your books and articles. The length
requirements for these summaries varies, here are some
guidelines:
a) They should not be too long (2-3 paragraphs
maximum), or too short (at least a paragraph)
b) The summary should be long enough to show
me that you have read the book or the article
c) The source does not determine the length of the
summary in any direct way, a short article may
have more information relevant to your topic
than a book, and a long book may have less
relevant information than a short one.
The assignment is 10 double spaced pages long, at
approximately 250 words a page, that’s 2500 words, for our
example, with four subjects, that’s about two pages per subject.
If each summary is 1-2 paragraphs long, that’s 3-6 summaries
per subject.
Sample Summary
1. JD Bernal, Science in History, Vol 1, MIT Press, 1971
Bernal’s book is a general history of science that uses the underlying economic
and political circumstances of each time period to explain the direction and development
of science. Starting with the ancient civilizations and going up to the end of the Medieval
period, Bernal links key scientific developments (discoveries, institutions, ideas) to the
demands created by the economic structures of society. For example, he argues that the
spread of science followed the development of capitalism in early modern society.
This book will be useful as Bernal claims that the feudal economy was local,
scattered and expanding, rather than centralizing. Medieval Europe lacked centralized
government since the collapse of the Roman Empire, new agricultural technologies
emphasized expansion rather than centralization, and Medieval hydraulic engineering
was not tied to single, large floodplains as was the case in the ancient civilizations.
2. W TeBrake, “Taming the Waterwolf: Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management in
the Netherlands during the Middle Ages”, Technology & Culture, Vol 43, N 3, July 2002
TeBrake’s article challenges the view that physical conditions in Medieval
Holland were generally stable, by arguing for large scale land sublimation due to
extensive hydrological engineering for agriculture. He outlines how small interventions
to create farmland out of swamp led to greater flooding, and the need for more advanced,
large-scale hydrological engineering. The Dutch ended up with a complex system for
water management, using increasingly sophisticated technologies. This source will be
useful as it shows how a complex, large scale technological system can exist outside of a
large-scale, centralized government.
5. The Final Essay
I expect that you will use a good number of the sources in your
annotated bibliography for your final paper, but there is no
requirement for you to do this. You may find that the sources
you used for your bibliography helped you to develop your
thesis, but do not help you in your actual argument.
Conclusion
The point of this assignment is to get you reading for your essay
earlier in the term, and to demonstrate to me that you have made
a good faith attempt to read and understand a number of sources
related to your topic. I fully expect that your thesis and your
sources will change as you go along. In general, it is better to
have a flawed thesis, start work early and change that thesis as
you read the literature, than to spend half the term trying to
come up with the ideal thesis, and waste weeks of writing and
editing time.
You are not familiar with the literature, that’s why you are
taking the course, so the chances of you coming up with a whizbang thesis without reading more of the literature are pretty
slim. The annotated bibliography is a work in progress, but it
will give you a head start on your essay, and it will help you to
improve your thesis as you discover more about your subject.