Annotated Bibliography

Project 1 – Annotated Bibliography: Due Week 3

The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. Creating an annotated bibliography calls for a variety of intellectual skills: concise exposition, succinct analysis, and informed library research. This project will enable you to get a jump on your Final Project.

To get started –

· Complete Step 1 of the Final Project

· Select from the issues, procedures, actions, activities, etc. the subject is likely to encounter as they experience the criminal justice system (e.g. police arrest discretion, right to bail, plea bargaining, risk assessment, good conduct sentence reduction, etc.) select one as the topic of your Annotated Bibliography. NOTE, this Annotated Bibliography focuses on the issue, procedure, action or activity, NOT the criminal event.

Using the following information, prepare an annotated bibliography with no fewer than four (4) sources.

1. Locate books, periodicals, and documents that may contain useful information and ideas on your topic. Briefly examine and review the items. Then, choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic. These should be academic journals (e.g., Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Journal of Crime and Justice, etc.) or books.Please note the following:

* At least two (2) of these sources must be from the UMUC library, althoguh I reccomend you use the UMUC library for all of your sources.

* None of your sources may be websites (e.g., Wikipidia; FBI wbsite, etc.) or Newspapers (e.g., New York Times; Wall Street Journal).

(If you need assistance in searching the library databases, go to http://www.umuc.edu/library/tutor/intro.htm and take the tutorial. The Guide to Criminal Justice Resources—UMUCis available for your research for this course.)

2. Type the reference information for the book, article, or document in a list using American Psychological Association (APA) formatting. If you are unsure of the requirements for APA, see examples and templates at: http://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/apa_examples.cfm

3. Write a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph for each source that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book, article, or document. Include one or more sentences that:

a. evaluate the authority or background of the author;

b. comment on the intended audience;

c. compare or contrast the work with another you have cited; and

d. explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic.

NOTE: Elements 3a-d are unique and are essential to the annotation for each source for full credit for this project. These assessments are usually not available in pre-composed commentaries about the source material. Students are cautioned against copying pre-composed information (See UMUC policy on Plagiarism) or otherwise shortcutting their original work for this assignment. do not merely copy and past the abstract from a paper, or copy and past a summary that is available on-line. I will be checking every sentence of every paper against google as well as Turn It In.

Annotations vs. Abstracts

Abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles or in periodical indexes. Annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author’s point of view, clarity and appropriateness of expression, and authority. Abstracts will not be accepted for this project.