Section 51a describes how to write a working bibliography, a document that helps you keep track of publication information for all of the sources you may be considering for your project. You may be assigned to write an annotated bibliography, a more formal document in which you summarize and evaluate those sources—at least the most promising ones. Writing brief sentences summarizing key points of a source will help you identify how the source relates to your argument and to your other sources and will help you judge whether the source is relevant and appropriate for your project. Clarifying your sources’ ideas will help you separate them from your own and from each other, and it will also help you move toward a draft in which you synthesize sources and present your own research thesis. (See 55c and 60c for more on synthesis.) For more help with writing an annotated bibliography, see the Writing Guide on the next page. (See also the complete annotated bibliography.)

sample annotated bibliography entry (mla style)