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HY 441 - Research Seminar in U.S. History - The Civil Rights Movement: Annotated Bibliography

This guide was created to support HY 441.

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources you plan to use in your research along with a description of the source's content, quality, and usefulness.

Check your assignment to see if there are required qualities for you to include in your annotated bibliography.

Write as You Read

You can stay organized while working on your literature review by writing as you read.

Writing as you read helps you avoid plagiarism. You can track which ideas from which authors you are using.

When you read an important section of text that is relevant to your research assignment, paraphrase the text. When you paraphrase, you:

  1. Apply another authors' ideas to your research topic.
  2. Show you understand the other authors' ideas and the context of your research topic.
  3. Still cite the author from whom the ideas originated.

To paraphrase as you read, you can follow these steps:

  1. Read the original text. Focus on the main ideas from the author. Check the author's citations and consider if those might be closer sources to the idea you want to paraphrase.
  2. In your own words, explain the original text to yourself or to a friend. Check your understanding of the passage.
  3. Ask yourself: How does this text apply to my research project?
  4. Write out a paraphrased version of the original text, including explaining how the text connects to your research topic. Keep track of what text you are citing.
  5. Check the paraphrased text you wrote. If you copied any of the original author's phrases, then those phrases need to be in quotation marks.
  6. Whenever you use your paraphrased text in your research project, always properly cite where you paraphrased from.

Zotero Download Instructions

Zotero is regularly updated, and new versions are released. These images may be outdated, but the steps should be correct.

To download Zotero:

  1. Visit the Zotero Homepage.
  2. Select the Download button. 
  3. Screenshot of the download button on the Zotero homepage.
  4. The download page will have download options. It will first suggest download versions based off of the operating system and preferred browser it thinks you use.
  5. You can select to show other download options if you don't want the suggested versions. 
  6. Screenshot of download button with other options on Zotero Download Page.
  7. You can download the Zotero app. You can also download the Zotero Connecter, a browser add-on that send browser information and files to the Zotero software.
  8. Allow the download process to happen. 
  9. If you want to use the Zotero Connecter, you may need to edit the toolbar to have the Connector icon appear.