1. Establish an issue that your essay will address, or a question it will answer.
2. Take a position on the issue.
3. Introduce at least 3 supporting points to back up your thesis with evidence.
Examples:
"Vegetarian diets improve health, help local farmers, and reduce carbon footprints."
"Light pollution is a serious problem that negatively affects animals, humans, and plants."
How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents and follows the appropriate style format for the discipline, i.e., MLA, APA, Chicago Manual of Style, etc. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. Unlike abstracts which are purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles or in periodical indexes, annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author's point of view, clarity and appropriateness of expression, and authority.
THE PROCESS
Creating an annotated bibliography calls for the application of a variety of intellectual skills: concise exposition, succinct analysis, and informed library research.
First, locate and record citations to books, periodicals, and documents that may contain useful information and ideas on your topic.
Briefly examine and review the actual items. Then choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic.
Cite the book, article, or document using the appropriate style.
Write a concise annotation that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book or article. Include one or more sentences that:
The annotation should include most, if not all, of the following:
An annotated bibliography is an original work created by you for a wider audience, usually faculty and colleagues. Copying any of the above elements is plagiarism and intellectual dishonesty.
Examples of Well-Crafted Annotations:
ATTRIBUTION:
The content for this libguide came from Olin Library Reference Research & Learning Services at
Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY, USA.
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/annotatedbibliography