Composing A Good Research Paper With An Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography is a list of sources with a description of each source, where they came from and what they consist of. All research papers require a bibliography, but not all of them require an annotated one. Working on your list before you start can be useful in many ways. You have to summarize the information from each source with a few sentences. Not only will this help you to learn more about the information, but it will also help you organize it by relevance or importance.
Because you have to write annotations for every source, this will force you to read the material more carefully. The more you know, the better off you will be!
Not all instructors will use the same formats, so you should have an idea of which one to use. The basic form of a citation is to state the name of the author followed by the title of the work, the page number(s) if needed, and then the date it was published.
Next, you should include your summary (no more than a single paragraph) of the most important information that is contained in the work, whether it be from an article, book or magazine.
The most tedious part of your task is now over. You've done the work, now you just have to put it all together. You can start by making an outline if you wish. It does help to gather your information, organize it, and know where it's going to go.
First, you need to state your thesis in the very first paragraph. This is also where you should introduce your topic and what readers can expect from your work.
In the body there should be several paragraphs explaining everything that relates to your topic. You need your information to support your thesis. In some research papers, you need to have a different subject or topic in each new paragraph, but they all need to be relevant to the main idea.
Your conclusion should include your results, a rewording of your thesis and a summary of the arguments you made in the body. You should explain how you came to your results.
Your arguments need to be strong. If you are genuinely interested and invested in the research then that will shine through in your work!