Unit 6 Assignment: Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography organizes your research by way of APA citations and a short paragraph about each source. For this assignment, you will create an annotated bibliography for four sources related to an argument for change. One of the sources should help you to address a rival viewpoint or misconception related to your topic. Your instructor will provide insightful feedback on the sources you find so you can determine whether to use them in the Unit 8 Assignment, a persuasive research essay.

Keeping track of the sources you have found to support your argument for change, assessing the credibility of those sources, and determining their value for supporting your argument will help you to write a more effective academic essay. An annotated bibliography allows you to do all of these things; it is essentially a references page with “annotations” for each source that summarize the main idea, assess the source’s credibility, and note the value of the source for your argument. 

For the Unit 6 Assignment, you will prepare an annotated bibliography that includes four sources related to your idea for change. Please include the following:

• Title page in APA format
• Your revised thesis statement for an argument for change in your community
• Citations and annotations for four separate sources, which can be primary or secondary but should all be credible and appropriate for academic research
• One source that includes a visual or graphic component to help you prepare for the Unit 9 Assignment (the presentation)
• One source that addresses a rival hypothesis or misconception about your topic (NOTE: the source does not have to oppose your thesis; it just needs to help you address a rival perspective)
• Citations should be in APA format
• Annotations should include the following:
  • 1–2 sentence summary of the source’s main idea, followed by an in-text citation, e.g. (Smith, 2014)
  • Evaluation of the source’s credibility, including the author’s credentials and the verifiability of the source’s information; this should include where you found the source (Library, Google search engine, government website, etc.). Use the criteria covered in Evaluating Information to guide your evaluation. 
  • Discussion about how you will use the source to support your argument for community change (this would include whether it poses a challenge to your argument that you will need to address). In this section, paraphrase a key point from the source that supports or challenges your thesis and include an in-text citation.
• NOTE: No separate references page is needed, but each annotation should have a complete reference citation in APA format. 

Sources that would be appropriate to use are as follows:

• Book, ebook, article, or a chapter from book or ebook
• Periodical (e.g., newspaper, magazine, journal article)
• Internet source (e.g., blog, organization website, article from internet site)
• Video or audio source (e.g., documentary, video blog, TED Talk, podcast)
• A primary source in which the authors of the content are the primary researchers (the ones who conducted research), e.g., a government report, case study, or speech
• An interview with an expert source either published online or conducted by the student
• A visual or graphic source from a credible .org, .gov, or .edu site 
• The writing should be in Standard English