Your Agenda Statement describes your research interests and details at least one research question you would like to explore further. It consists of three sections:
- Your research question(s)
- Why this topic deserves further study
- Why this topic is important to society.
Your Annotated Bibliography conists of the scholarly sources you used to learn more about the research area and help answer your research question(s) that you detailed in your Agenda Statement. An Annotated Bibliography is a list of citations to articles and other sources. Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation.
Your annotations should follow a citation, annotation, then repeat format. Your annotations should also include the following three sections and answer their corresponding questions:
- Summarize the key points of the source: What was the topic? Why was the research important? How was the research done? What did the authors find? Did the authors discuss implications of the research?
- Assess the source (critical evaluation): Is it a useful source? How does it compare with outher sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of your source?
- Reflection: Was this source helpful to you? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic? How does this source make you think about your thesis statement and build your arguments? Does the source support or counter any of your arguments? How will you apply the source’s theoretical positions, issues discussed, study data, and claims made based on that data to your thesis statement and arguments?
Check out Cornell University's How To Prepare An Annotated Bibliography page for more help putting together your Annotated Bibliography.
