BIOL 340: Research Methods

An annotated bibliography is a great stepping stone in writing research papers. Just like a regular bibliography, annotated bibliographies need to have a correctly written citation for each source, but annotated bibliographies also need to include a brief summary, article analysis, and information about the applicability of a source to your research question. 

For Biology 340, you should put the citation at the top of your bibliography entry, then use bullet points to cover the other required elements. 

There are several reasons why making an annotated bibliography is helpful beyond just getting a grade for an assignment. 

1. An annotated bibliography makes your life so much easier when trying to keep track of your research. If you create an annotated bibliography, you won't have to constantly ask yourself which article had that interesting hypothesis or why you saved that one article. 
2. Your annotated bibliography will save you time when you are putting together a final research paper. Your bibliography entries will be ready to add to the paper and you will already have formulated some thoughts about what you want to discuss about each article. 
3. An annotated bibliography encourages you to pay attention to the sources you're using. It is always important to think about who is writing the sources you use and where their information comes from. A annotated bibliography gets you thinking about your sources right off the bat. 
4. An annotated bibliography is a great way to learn and practice analyzing academic work. Being able to read and understand scientific papers is a learned skill that you can only get better at by doing.