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Research Methods: Annotated Bibliographies, Literature Reviews, and More

Research Methods resources at Ball State University Libraries. You can access this guide directly by going to http://bsu.libguides.com/researchmethods

Sample Informative/Descriptive Annotation

 An informative/descriptive annotation describes the content of the work without judging. 
 

Sample Critical Annotation

Critical annotations tend to evaluate the resource.

Other examples

Questions to think about when writing an annotation

  • Who is the audience for the resource?
  • What is the purpose of the resource?
  • What is the tone of the information presented?
  • Scope--what/who does it include?  What/who does it leave out?
  • Relevance of the information, study, findings
  • Is the argument persuasive, informative, controversial?
  • Are the researchers authoritative, qualified to be doing the project? 
  • Is the journal peer-reviewed (scholarly)?
  • Is the information published by a reputable company?
  • Was the methodology explained clearly? Does it fit the study?
  • Were the results plausible?  Were the short-comings of the study discussed?