Annotated bibliography

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What can annotated bibliographies assess?

This method can be used to assess students’ ability to access and manage information. More specifically it can give students the opportunity to develop skills and demonstrate their competence in:

researching
investigating
interpreting
organising information
reviewing and paraphrasing information
collecting data
comparing sources
referencing

Given their format and purpose, annotated bibliographies are not suitable to assess the way in which a coherent and or original argument is presented and developed.

What alternative assessment methods could I choose?

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Design

Depending on the assignment, an annotated bibliography might have different purposes:

introduce students to research activities
provide a literature review on a particular subject
identify a gap in the literature
help to formulate a thesis on a subject
demonstrate the research students have performed on a particular subject
provide examples of major sources of information available on a topic
describe items that other researchers may find of interest on a topic
work with and build upon AI generated content.

It is essential to produce a clear brief to define the purpose of the annotated bibliography as well as what the annotated bibliography should provide. This could include amongst others:

full reference details of the text / resource
details of the method employed by the author, including how AI was used (if applicable)
an synopsis of the argument made by the author/s
identification of the advantages / limits in the way the study was conducted
an evaluation of the text’s relevance to a specific research question.

It might also be useful to define the range / number of sources that you expect students to include and the order in which they should present them (i.e. alphabetically, thematically, chronologically, etc.).

The brief should also specify if students are expected to preface the bibliography with a short overall introduction and include a concluding paragraph that draws together key points.

Clear marking criteria should be set as part of the design of the task and shared with the students.

Diversity & Inclusion

Annotated bibliographies, when supported by an appropriate marking rubric, provide an opportunity for students to distinguish themselves through their selection of sources, their ability to reference, the quality of their writing, and their analytical insights. This method can also support inclusivity by allowing students a choice of topic, sources and approach. It can be a powerful way to empower students by giving them the opportunity to contribute to the curriculum and can contribute to efforts to decolonise the curriculum. Consideration should be given as to how these elements will impact on the quality of the annotated bibliography and whether they should be incorporated into the intended learning outcomes and marking criteria.

Academic Integrity

Students should be provided with clear guidance as to how to preserve academic integrity. There is a wide range of annotated bibliographies available on the web so students might be tempted to either use pre-existing materials or rework abstracts instead of reading the whole text. AI is able to generate material for annotated bibliography, and has potential to be an integral part of academic research, and should be considered when designing the brief. Assistance from AI will enable students to do more within the assessment hours, so assessment criteria may reflect this. Alternatively, if the focus of the intended learning outcomes necessitates AI-free or AI-light engagement you might want to integrate mechanisms which also require and assess a personal response to the task, or a requirement to integrate material which cannot be readily scraped from the internet.

One way of reducing the risk of misconduct is to design marking criteria that focus on how students critique the sources in relation to a specific question. It might also be useful to ask students to write a brief introduction to their work that explains how and why they selected the sources and a brief conclusion that pulls together the key points raised across the various sources into a cohesive argument in relation to the question set. (Click for further guidance on plagiarismLink opens in a new window.)

Staff and student experience

Benefits

This type of task can help develop students’ ability to do independent research, identify relevant sources, and write a clear and concise evaluation of these texts. It can be a useful way to give students a good grounding in the topic and help them to connect a range of sources and see various perspectives. Once marked they can also be shared between peers as a resource and it can function as a study aid for later assessed work.

Challenges

Students might be unfamiliar with the format of this task; it is therefore important to share examples of work with students and carefully explain what is expected. In order to avoid students writing long general summaries of sources they should be given the opportunity to practice summarising the whole source in one initial sentence. Once they have mastered this, they can then develop the rest of the annotation and expand on the:

quality of the arguments put forward
academic rigour of the source
perspective taken by the source
theoretical underpinnings of the source
possible impact of the source.

Given the need to summarise and the short word count available, students should be particularly wary of making unsupported judgements and sweeping generalisations.

Workload

Both students and staff might underestimate the time it takes to write an annotated bibliography. To ensure the workload is manageable it might be useful to consider the type of sources, i.e. depending on the time allocated to this it might be more realistic for students to produce a good annotated bibliography of a selection of shorter articles rather than of a range of very long texts or books. Careful definition of the task in this way can define the workload and time spent.

Useful resources

Beatty, L., & Cochran, C. A. (2021).Writing the annotated bibliography: a guide for students and researchers. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.Link opens in a new window