Describe: Identify the author, publication, genre. Do research into the author. Who is this person? What is this person’s background and/or expertise? What is the name of the article, book, etc.? Where was it published? What genre is it? What do we need to know about publication and/or genre? When was it published?
Summarize: What is the writer’s rhetorical situation? In what immediate context is the writer writing? What is the main point the author is trying to get across? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say?
Evaluate: How has this source been useful to your research? What was important about the information/argument? How would you describe the perspective it offers and why? Is it extremely biased? Seemingly objective? Well-informed? Very scholarly? Etc.
Reflect: Has this source changed how you think about and/or research your topic? Also, see the list above. How might you put this source to work for you in your article, even if it is biased? How can it help you build or shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Are there particular quotes you might extract and/or paraphrase? If so, why? What will that help you accomplish?
Sample Annotated Bibliographic Entry
Alva, Walter and Christopher Donnan. Royal Tombs of Sipan. 2nd Edition. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1994.
Royal Tombs of Sipan is written by Walter Alva, Chief Archaeologist of the excavations at Sipan and Director of the Bruning Archaeological Museum in Lambayeque, Peru, and Christopher B. Donnan, Professor of Anthropology at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History. Both Alva and Donnan are considered two of the leading experts on Moche culture and history, and each have written several scholarly books on the Moches.
In this book, Alva and Donnan describe the excavation of three royal tombs of the Moche, a civilization that flourished on the north coast of Peru between A.D. 100 and 800. This is the tomb I saw in the museum in Peru that prompted by the research project. As a large-format picture depicts, the royal tombs contained extraordinary gold and silver jewelry and ceremonial attire that have lead to a deeper understanding of Moche civilization. In addition, the authors provide detailed accounts of the tombs and methods of excavation, which are clarified by colorful, fold-out pages relating tomb artifacts and textual descriiptions.
This book has helped me learn much information about the Moche civilization and gain a close perspective of the burial chambers and the burial ritual. I will use this information to inform my readers about the Moches, to describe their burial rituals, and the specific placement of artifacts in the tomb. I will also use some of the visuals from this book in my paper, so my reader can see the tomb artifact and display that I am writing about. All of this information will help persuade my reader that the tombs were intentionally constructed for a rhetorical purpose.
