Course Recap for Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Finding Good Sources for Your Annotated Bibliography
We talked about the types of sources that I will be accepting this project and the types of sources I will not be accepting.  I want you to have at least 1 print source per person in your annotated bibliography.  I don't want any online sources that don't have authors and aren't backed by some major trusted organization.   Try to avoid major overview websites that aren't hosted by an organization. The sort of sites that list a bunch of facts about your historical event or era but doesn't list where any of their information came from.  Even if the information is true, you would be better off citing that information from a much more valid source.

Here are some tips for finding and citing print sources for your Annotated Bibliography.

1. Use Western's Library Website: www.wmich.edu/library  You can find books, newspaper articles, and journal articles and most of them you can access online.
2. If you find a newspaper article online on the Western website, cite it the same way you would a print source.  Those articles are basically the same text that was printed in the actual newspaper that someone has typed online so you have easy access to it.  So check the MLA guide on the Purdue website and use the instructions for citing a newspaper article. (This is only for newspaper articles you find on the library website. I can't vouch for any you find in any other way.)
3. When using a journal article always check the right hand corner to see if there is a PDF version of the article.  You have to be able to list the page numbers when using a journal article and you will only know the page numbers if you can see the journal article as a PDF. Just like with the newspaper articles, cite it as a print source. 
4.  For print sources you must have the page numbers where the information came from when doing in-text citations- when you quote or paraphrase the information in your own writing.

For your annotations (the descriptions of the sources) I want you to summarize the source and it's relevance to your paper. In that summary you must include at least one direct quote or paraphrased thought for each source. This will give you a chance to practice in-text citations again since you will be using footnotes to note your research in your actual narrative.