Length and content of annotations

Annotations usually aim to be concise and thus are only one paragraph long (150-200 words).

There are descriptive, evaluative, and reflective annotations. We will be writing reflective annotations. Reflective annotations are similar to evaluative , but they focuses on the source’s usefulness or relevance to your own research.

Reflective annotations are often required when the point is to gather sources for a future research project, or to assess how they were used in a project you already completed.

What to include in your reflective annotations?

• Topic: The first sentence or two  gives information about and describes the topic of your source. For images, describe the image.
• Argument or Position: Next, briefly give a little more detail about the writer’s position or argument in the source (a couple sentences is enough).
• Evaluation: Assesses the usefulness of the source. No source is perfect! Point out the strengths and weaknesses of this source. Maybe it’s a little outdated but contains a unique argument. (a sentence or two on this)
• Relation to your own research: How/why are you using this source? Why are you including this source in your research project?