Students are notorious procrastinators. Assigning an annotated bibliography early in the term helps students structure their time. For example, if we expect students to cite primary sources in a literature review paper, students who delay locating sources might scramble to locate the required number of sources and cite sources of marginal relevance.

The annotated bibliography can encourage students to evaluate the quality of sources located in a database if we require students to locate a larger number of scholarly sources than we require the students to cite in the final paper. The annotated bibliography assignment might require each student to identify 2–3 sources they located in a database search that they thought would be useful but decided were not relevant or not useful. Ask students to explain in their annotations why a rejected source looked promising at first but was ultimately rejected.

When students identify and examine more materials than they are required to include in the final submission, they can break away from the habit of including every remotely relevant source they locate to meet minimum citation requirements for an assignment. Students can then begin to evaluate the merit of materials as cited sources. Students need practice making these decisions to build their information literacy skills in the analysis and evaluation of evidence.

If you are new to annotated bibliographies and want to try it as an assignment, NYIT librarians are available to work with you and your students. Customized information literacy sessions focused on the annotated bibliography can be scheduled at the New York City and Long Island Campuses, and Zoom sessions can be scheduled for online courses.

Can't make it to the library? No problem. Send your students for a one-on-one research consultation (/library/appointment​), or request an online guide or video tutorial geared specifically to the requirements of your assignment.

Resources:

• NYIT Writing & Citing Guide: http://libguides.nyit.edu/writingandciting
• OWL at Purdue Annotated Bibliography Guide: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/1/
• UNC Annotated Bibliography Guide: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/annotated-bibliographies/

To follow up on any of these ideas, please contact one of our librarians, or contact me at fglazer@nyit.edu. This Weekly Teaching Note was adapted from a contribution to the Teaching and Learning Writing Consortium hosted at Western Kentucky University and organized by Seneca College and New York Institute of Technology.

Contributor:
Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D., Director
Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL
uwf.edu/cutla/