ENGLISH 102 ESSAY 2A—ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ESSAY REQUIREMENTS:
● Length: 150-250 words per annotation
● Sources: 10, including at least one or more of the following: books (or book chapters),
journal articles, magazine/newspaper articles, and websites
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Format: MLA or APA style, 12 pt. font, Times New Roman
Audience: General academic
OVERALL GRADE DISTRIBUTION:
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Working Folder: 5 % of total class grade
Essay 2A Final Draft: 15% of total class grade
* The above essay requirements are expected of every Essay 2A, for all sections of English 102;
however, the following information presents general guidelines. You should consult your
instructor for specifics relevant to your particular section of 102.
SEMESTER OVERVIEW: As you continue to search for answers and solutions to the problems and
controversies you identified in Essay 1, you may end up choosing to stick with the same topic, or
you may decide to select a new topic that fits within the course theme. In either case, you should
compose both parts of Essay 2—the Annotated Bibliography and Essay 2B (the Proposal)—in
continued preparation for Essay 4, the Extended, Source-based Argument.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY PURPOSE AND STRUCTURE: Before composing a Proposal, you
will write an Annotated Bibliography. An Annotated Bibliography is a collection of entries that
document and annotate sources consulted when conducting a research project. This collection of
entries should conform to a standard citation format; for the purposes of this course, students
should use either MLA or APA style. Specifically, then, your Annotated Bibliography will
include the following for each source: a work cited (MLA) or references (APA) entry, a brief
summary and evaluation, and a comment on how the source will help in writing the paper.
Annotations are generally a combination of objective summary of the source and commentary on
the quality, usefulness, and/or effectiveness of the source. Again, you should try to think of a
successful annotation being both summative and evaluative. Overall, each annotation should be
approximately 150-250 words. Typically the evaluation portions of annotations discuss one or
more of the following: the author’s identity and purpose, the implicit or explicit audience, the
author’s focus and overall argument, the author’s choice of evidence included to bolster claims,
the author’s selection of tone and language, and the source’s date and method and/or place of
publication.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OVERVIEW: In starting any research project, you should first read
all you can about the topic in order to narrow your idea to a particular research question of
interest. This is true for the Proposal and later, the Extended, Source-based Argument. In
composing the Annotated Bibliography, you typically gain practice finding various types of
credible sources, summarizing them, and rating them in terms of their usefulness. Annotated
Bibliographies also help writers become more familiar with applying citation formats.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY EVALUATION: Annotated Bibliographies for English 102 should
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demonstrate an ability to move from Essay 1 to 2A as you undergo the process of reevaluating the Essay 1 topic or selecting a new one;
investigate the Essay 2 topic further through writing;
present a genre example of the academic annotated bibliography form;
demonstrate understanding of how to construct an annotated bibliography, with each
annotation featuring an organized, blocked “paragraph”;
offer supporting proof or claims to back up general, abstract premises and present the
correct proportion of textual summary to author analysis, using the 10 required sources;
conform with MLA or APA standards in composing;
include a range of reliable sources that represent multiple points of view;
demonstrate an ability to utilize stylistic principles meant to gain and maintain the
reader’s interest, including variety in language and syntax use;
create annotations that are both satisfactorily accurate to the original sources and succinct
in nature;
demonstrate an ability to write using Standard Edited American English.
Writing Center Location:
Morris Library, Room 236 (453-1231)
* For information about Writing Center hours, call the above phone number or consult
the following website: www.write.siuc.edu