Essay Preparation Assignment
Annotated Bibliography
Find three to five scholarly sources related to your chosen historical research topic and write an annotated bibliography.
STEP 1:
You must search the online NTCC Library & Databases for your scholarly sources. Without the instructor’s prior approval, utilizing sources elsewhere is unacceptable and will lead to a lower grade for your essay.
This means that you should not select the following sources: Wikipedia, History.com, Biography.com, the National Park Service website, the White House website, etc.
EBOOKS:
You may find any eBooks using the online catalog: https://ntcc.on.worldcat.org/discovery
Please note that only online eBooks are acceptable – print books are not permissible as they cannot accessed by both the student and the instructor.
JOURNALS/ARTICLES:
To find peer-reviewed online journals, please look at two databases in particular: GALE ACADEMIC ONEFILE and JSTOR are recommended for history essays, although you may use other databases as well, which can be found in the list of databases on this link: https://www.ntcc.edu/academics/library/library-databases.
Please take care when searching for sources that you NOT select “book reviews” – a book review is not a legitimate source as it only assesses a book. These will be of no value to you. Also, do not use any encyclopedias as sources.
Step 2:
Once you have selected three to five scholarly sources from the library catalog and/or library databases, please submit an annotated bibliography of your sources in this discussion forum.
Your submission should be a WORD DOCUMENT, as you must reflect proper MLA formatting, and a message in the discussion forum does not permit this.
Your sources should be in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. Begin each entry by providing the correctly formatted bibliographic citing of the item. Many NTCC article & eBook databases provide automatic citations. Try to find a “Cite,” “Citing,” or “Citation” link within the specific article or eBook record. You need to select the MLA selection. Be sure to double-check all automatic citations to ensure they are formatted correctly. No citation should have all capitals – that is an error of the website, and you should correct it.
To learn how to correctly format your entry or to double-check an auto-generated citation, click on the “citation style guide” link on the library home page: https://libguides.ntcc.edu/c.php?g=634482
You will see a variety of style options. Different disciplines have preferred citation methods. You can click on “citation builders” to help you format correctly. Again, we are using the MLA citation formatting style for this essay.
Your annotation should be a one-paragraph summary of each source.
Here are some other great resources to assist you:
- What is an Annotated Bibliography & Why Write One
- MLA Annotated Bibliography Example and Template
- MLA Style Annotated Bibliography – Format & Examples
- Ms. Peer Editor – How to Write an Annotated Bibliography in MLA Format (video)
- How to Create an Annotated Bibliography (MLA) – video
Please note that some of these examples include 2 paragraphs – one summary and one personal reflection of how the source will work best in your essay. You only have to write ONE paragraph; you can merge these two concepts.