Today, you will draft an annotated bibliographic entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research. For a list of sources, see the complete assignment directions under the heading Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography.
Key Features
Your bibliographic entry will consist of these elements:
- A complete MLA-style work cited entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research.
- A paragraph that summarizes the source.
- A second paragraph, one of commentary, that elucidates the usefulness of the source to you and others researching your subject. Would it serve as a point of comparison or contrast to another primary or secondary source? Would it support or challenge an idea presented in another source? Is it a secondary source that sheds light on the meaning of a primary source? The last question pertains primarily to bibliographies that focus on one of the writers studied in the course. Do not write in your commentary, this source is useful because . . . Instead, demonstrate the source’s function
- A third paragraph that consists of one or more sentences that provide the writer’s credentials: the qualifications and achievements that demonstrate his or her competence and credibility.
For models, look to the annotated bibliographic entries in “Scrabble as a Game Changer,” the sample assignment you will receive today.
Directions for Bibliographic Entry
- Draft a bibliographic entry that includes all the elements outlined above.
- For directions on drafting the third paragraph, see the Credentials section that follows.
- Compose your bibliographic entry on the lines provided on the exercise handout and/or additional paper, and submit it before you leave class.
Credentials
The third paragraph of each of your bibliographic annotations will consist of one or more sentences that provide the writer’s credentials: the qualifications and achievements that demonstrate his or her competence and credibility.
Directions for Credentials (Paragraph Three)
- Locate the author of your source in the list that follows
- Compose a short paragraph of one or more sentences that includes the writer’s first and last names and the credentials listed in the bulleted points. Do not comment on the writer’s qualifications. Like a summary, a paragraph of credentials is an objective presentation of information.
Aubrey, Allison
- Correspondent for NPR (National Public Radio) and a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning, the PBS NewsHour,
- Recipient of awards from the New York Press Club, the National Press Club, the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, and the James Beard Foundation
Barthelme, Donald
- Author of the novel Snow White and the collection Sixty Stories, among others
- His short story collection City Life was named by Time magazine as one of the best books of 1971
- Recipient of the National Book Award, the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship
Chu, Charlotte
- Journalist who has covered science, health, and technology for Vox, Scientific American, Popular Science, Discover Magazine, Business Insider, and GenomeWeb, among others
Junod, Tom
- Senior writer for ESPN.com
- Previously wrote for Esquire, GQ, Life, and Sports Illustrated
- Recipient of two National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors
Keller, Helen
- Author of The Story of My Life and The World I Love In, among others
- Named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century
King, Martin Luther, Jr.
- Civil Rights leader
- Author of Strength to Love and Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
- Recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize
King, Stephen
- Author of Carrie, The Shining, Pet Cemetery, and more than sixty other novels
- Recipient of the 2003 National Book Award’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts.
Klara, Robert
- Senior Editor of brands at AdWeek
- Author of three nonfiction books: FDR’s Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy and a Presidency in the Balance, The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America’s Most Famous Residence, and The Devil’s Mercedes: The Bizarre and Disturbing Adventures of Hitler’s Limousine in America
Lee, Harper
- Author of To Kill a Mockingbird, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961
- Wrote two posthumously published works: Go Set a Watchman and The Land of Sweet Forever
- Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, for her contributions to literature
Lewis, Michael
- Author of The Blind Side and Moneyball, among others
- Named a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023
- Two-time recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for Feature Writing
Richtel, Matt
- New York Times journalist
- Author of A Deadly Warning (2014)
- Recipient of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting
Sedaris, David
- Author of Happy-Go-Lucky and The Land and Its People, among others
- Recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor
- Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019
Wolf, Maryanne
- Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social Justice at UCLA
- Author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
- Recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, the American Psychological Association Teaching Award, and a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Sciences at Stanford
Final Essay and Annotated Bibliography, Complete Assignment
An annotated bibliography is a list of sources on a subject that includes a summary of each source. Some bibliographies include additional information, such as commentary on the source and the authors’ credentials, which is the type of bibliography that you will compose along with your final essay for the course.
Key Features
- Your final essay, an introductory essay of three or more paragraphs, presents the subject of your bibliography and addresses your purpose for compiling it. In other words: What drives your research? What interests you in the subject, and what question, or questions, do you seek to answer about it? Also, it considers what larger project might develop from your final essay and annotated bibliography, and lastly, what would serve as its theoretical framework? In other words, through what academic lens would you examine your subject?
- A complete MLA-style bibliographic entry for each source.
Assignment Directions
- Begin by drafting an annotated bibliographic entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research. See the accompanying handout for directions.
- Use the HPU Libraries site, https://www.highpoint.edu/library/, and Google Scholar to locate a minimum of three additional reliable and relevant print sources (articles, essays, and/or books) devoted to the same subject. Compose your summary, commentary, and credentials paragraphs in complete sentences, introduce quotations with signal phrases, and include parenthetical citations where needed. Your bibliography must include five sources, four of which must be print. (The interview you conduct is a nonprint source. Details TBA.) If you wish to include an additional non-print source, such as a video, you may include that as a sixth source. Also, if you choose to use both articles on limiting screen time that were distributed in class (Allison Aubrey’s and Maryanne Wolf’s), you will need to include an additional print source.
- After you have composed your annotated bibliographic entries, write an introductory essay that (1) presents the subject of your bibliography, and (2) addresses your purpose for compiling it. In other words: What drives your research? What question do you seek to answer about your subject? Also, (3) What larger project might develop from your bibliography? Would it be a project for a course in psychology, science, education, or another discipline? What would serve as its theoretical framework? In other words, through what academic lens would you examine your subject? Address all five of your sources in your essay and quote at least two of them.
Though your introductory essay will precede your annotated bibliography, you will compose it last because you will need to reread and summarize your sources before you will know how to address them in your essay.
Directions for Researching, Drafting, Revising, and Submitting
- Devote today’s class to drafting the annotated bibliographic entry for the source that serves as the starting point for your research.
- In class: Conduct a personal interview and compose an annotated bibliographic entry for the interview. Details TBA. Note: Additional class periods over the course of the next two weeks will be devoted to writing and research.
- Before class on the due date: Post a copy of your revision to Blackboard and to your blog. In your blog post, omit the first-page information included in your file submitted to Blackboard (your name, professor’s name, course and section, and date). Add to your blog post an image that documents some part of your writing process away from the screen, such as the summary of your source in your journal, today’s worksheet, or a page of your draft. Also, add an embedded link to a relevant website. Even though your work for this assignment will take place primarily in front of the screen, your writing process still involves putting pen to paper, and photographic documentation of that on your blog is a requirement of the assignment.
Sample Annotated Bibliography Entries
Aubrey, Allison. “A Break from Your Smartphone Can Reboot Your Mood: Here’s How Long You Need.” NPR, 24 Feb. 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/nx-s1-5304417/smartphone-break-digital-detox-screen-addiction#:~:text= Researchers%20studied%20what%20happened%20when,felt%20better%20after%20the%20break.
Barthelme, Donald. “The School.” The Best American Short Stories 1975, edited by Martha Foley, Houghton Mifflin, 1975. pp. 8-11.
Hu, Charlotte. “Why Writing by Hand is Better for Memory and Learning.” Ed. Lauren J. Young. Scientific American, 21 Feb. 2024, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/.
Junod, Tom. “The Falling Man, vol. 140, no. 3, Sept. 2003, pp. 176+. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url= https://www.proquest.com/ magazines/falling-man/docview/210268344/se-2.
Keller, Helen. “The Day Language Came into My Life.” https://janelucasdotcom. files.wordpress.com/2025/08/a0461-3.thedaylanguagecameintomylife_keller.pdf.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” U. of Texas at Austin, https://minio.la.utexas.edu/webeditor-files/coretexts/pdf/1963_mlk_letter.pdf.
King, Stephen. “Strawberry Spring.” Nigh Shift. Anchor, 2011. pp. 268-82.
Klara, Robert. “Scrabble.” Adweek, vol. 61, no. 13, 15 June 2020, pp. 22-23. ProQuest, https://libraryproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazine/scrabble/docview/241647624/se-2.
Lee, Harper. Chapter One. To Kill a Mockingbird. Lippincott, 1960. pp. 9-19.
Lewis, Michael. Chapter One: “Back Story.” The Blind Side. 2006. Norton, 2009. pp.15-23.
Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012. ProQuest, https://libproxy.highpoint.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts-websites/blogs-vs-term-papers/docview/2216251885/se-2.
Sedaris, David. “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Me Talk Pretty One Day. Little, Brown, 2000. 166-73.
Wolf, Maryanne. “Skim Reading is the New Normal. The Effect on Society is Profound.” The Guardian, 25 Aug. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/25/skim-reading-new-normal-maryanne-wolf.
*Note that the samples above lack the hanging indents that should be included in the Word document or PDF that you post to Blackboard. See the sample entries on the assignment handout for MLA-style format.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website, or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips, including this one.
Coming Soon
On Monday, as an exercise in creating a primary source for your annotated bibliography, you will conduct an interview with one of your classmates. Details TBA.
Jane Lucas 