Preparing an Annotated Reference List for your WebQuest

Remember that two of the three individual outcomes for your webquest are the preparation and submission of the following annotated references from the expert role (diversity, clinical practice, patient education) that each team member will assume:

1. 2-3 relevant and high quality journal articles in APA format
2. 2-3 relevant and high quality web resources in APA format

As you search out information to the questions assigned to you in your expert role, select and use relevant and high quality journal articles and web resources in helping you answer those questions. That way you are not finding articles and web resources merely to find them, but you are using them to maximize your time in answering the questions that you have been assigned.

But now you may wonder about how to prepare an annotated reference list. It's not at all difficult. Review these two excellent (and brief) resource sites:

• The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin at http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/AnnotatedBibliography.html
• Olin & Uris Libraries at Cornell University at http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm

Steps in writing your annotated references:

1. Write the complete reference in APA format - whether journal article or web resource. Rely on your APA manual for proper formatting.
   • NOTE: Chapter 4 of the 5th edition of the APA's Publication Manual contains all the information you'd ever want to know about formatting your reference list. These pages (in the spiral bound book from p. 215 to p. 281) should become well-marked and well-worn for you by the time you're done with your educational program!
   • NOTE: Section 4.07, entitled General Forms (pp. 223-224 in spiral bound), contains a brief overview of citations for periodicals (in our current case, journal articles) and online documents (in our current case, web resources).
2. In terms of style, write the annotation using complete sentences, in a paragraph style.
   • NOTE: See the University of Wisconsin site for examples.
3. In terms of content, you will use a combination form for your annotation - write 1 to 3 sentences describing the content of the resource and write another 1 to 3 sentences describing your evaluation of the resource. Your annotated references will not receive full points if they do not incorporate both components (description of content and of evaluation).
   • NOTE: See the University of Wisconsin site for examples.
4. Make sure that you're preparing an annotated reference and not an abstract. Your annotated reference should not look like an abstract that appears before an article - you don't have nearly enough sentences to use!
   • NOTE: See the Cornell University site for a discussion of the differences between an annotated reference and an abstract.

Both the University of Wisconsin and Cornell University sites have excellent examples of annotated references/bibliographies.

Why are we asking you to provide an annotated reference list instead of an annotated bibliography list?

The first paragraph of Chapter 4 in your APA Publication Manual (5th edition) should satisfy that curiosity! You are preparing an annotated reference list, as the articles and web resources that you will cite specifically support your webquest work. In contrast, in an annotated bibliography you would be expected to include many more articles and web resources that readers could review for background and additional reading. We have given you a specific number of articles and web resources that you must annotate (2-3 each) and do not expect you to annotate all that is out there for the expert role to which you've been assigned!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. || Contact Cynthia Russell with questions or comments. || Return to the informatics WebQuest homepage.