SOCL 3020: Sociology of Family Diversity

Annotated bibliographies are descriptive and evaluative lists of resources. They may include citations to books, journal/magazine articles, web sites, or other materials. Annotated bibliographies start with a citation which is followed by a brief passage (written in paragraph form) that describes and also evaluates the information.

For your annotated bibliography assignment, the entires in your annotated bibliography should perform three functions:

• Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? What was the author’s research question/methods?  What are the findings?  
• Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?
• Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic? 

A typical annotation generally contains the following information:

• Author information: Who is the author? What is her/his educational/professional background? Are they qualified to write about this topic?
• Purpose: What is the purpose of this research? Is the purpose stated or implied?  
• Audience information: To what audience is the author writing (scholars, teachers, the general public, etc.)? Is this reflected in the author's style of writing or presentation?
• Author bias: Does the author show any biases or make assumptions upon which the rationale of the article rests? If so, what are they?
• Methodological information: How did the researcher obtain the data?
• Conclusion: What conclusions does the author draw? Are these conclusions specifically stated or implied?
• Conclusion justification: Are the conclusions justified from the research or experience? Are the conclusions in sync with the original purpose of the research and supported by the data? Are the conclusions skewed by bias?
• Relationship to other works: How does this work compare with others cited? Does it conflict with conventional wisdom, established scholarship, government policy, etc.? 
• Time frame: Is the work current? Is this important? How does the time in which it was written reflect on the information contained in this work.

SIFT is a series of actions you can take to determine the validity and reliability of claims and sources on the web.

The SIFT method, or strategy, is quick and simple and can be applied to various kinds of online content: news articles, scholarly articles, social media posts, videos, images, etc.

Each letter in SIFT corresponds to one of the Four Moves:

Stop

Investigate the source

Find better coverage

Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context

Find more details on the Four Moves from Mike Caulfield's SIFT (Four Moves), which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Dos:

• Summarize the central theme or scope of the article
• Explain how this resource ties into the purpose or idea of your project
• Include information on the author
• Read the materials you have selected "aggressively" ("poach" the readings) with the ultimate purpose of your reading at the forefront of your mind (for example, creating an entry in your annotated bibliography).

Don'ts:

• Do not write a "thumbs-up/thumbs-down review
• Do not plagiarize
• Do not copy and paste the abstract

Abstracts

• Summarizes the work
• Are usually short
• Normally do not include an evaluation of the work itself

Annotations 

• Includes an evaluation of or critical comments on the work.
• The evaluation can include apparent biases, questions of credibility, and the originality of the research.
• Annotation helps the reader know whether the work cited will be helpful to a specific research topic. 

Thank you to Caleb Puckett, Emporia State University and Vanessa Earp, Kent State University, for allowing us to borrow information from their LibGuides on Creating Annotated Bibliograpies.