Week 2A - Prepare an Annotated Bibliography

Activity 1 | Activity 2 | Activity 3 | Activity 4 | Activity 5

Activity 1: Introduction

During your topic selection process you already did some research about your topic. You will now finish the task of searching for information that will answer your research question. Your online library, accessed through the WGU Student Portal, is probably the best place to begin searching for information to answer your research question. Because of the wide range of materials available through the WGU E-reserves library, you may decide to contact WGU’s online librarian, who can help you locate sources quickly. This way, you can get the most out of the time you devote to research. There is also a Library chat and/or an annotated bibliography chat about once a month if you need more assistance. Powerpoints on the various chats are available here  http://community.wgu.edu/clearspacex/thread/30293. 

Once you have at least 10 resources that are factual, credible, and relevant to your topic, you will begin LAT1 Task 1. The main goal of Task 1 involves creating an annotated bibliography in APA formatting. This task will give you a way to critique your 10 (or more) sources and summarize their contributions to  your research paper.

The purpose of the annotated bibliography is to:

• evaluate the authors and explain how and why they are credible and experts on the topic
• write a concise summary on the source
• indicate how you will use the source in your research paper

You will also review the mechanics of APA reference writing and in-text citations as you finalize your reference for each annotation. This is important to learn and understand, since most essays written at WGU require APA formatting and citations.

The annotated bibliography should include the sources that you predict you will use in your research paper.  Collecting and organizing this information now can save you time later and give you the best clue about which of the gathered resources are best to use for your paper.