I just got a perfect score on an annotated bibliography worth 20% of my grade, so I thought this would be the perfect subject for my first studyblr tips post!
One can either say very little on this subject, or write hundreds of pages. I’m going for the former.
I personally suggest avoiding auto-citation sites such as EasyBib. Citation generators require so much revising that it’s usually faster to write them yourself.
“Cite this source” links are often also automated. They’re usually better than the sites mentioned above, so you might save some time by copy/pasting them and then checking for errors.
Oddly enough, I’ve had professors that either have preferences beyond style rules, or actually don’t know some of the more obscure rules. Send a draft to them if possible.
Purdue Owl is all right, but not that comprehensive. If your school has access to the full manual, use it.
My first sentence is usually “This is a [primary/secondary/tertiary] [scholarly/popular/trade] [journal article/encyclopedia entry/book/etc.] Before I get into RADAR, I explain why a source is scholarly/popular/trade, and why it’s primary/secondary/tertiary.
There are some sources which are a bit ambiguous, in which case I would cite more than one justification for your classification. Otherwise, you can basically write the same two sentences for every citation of its kind, as long as it’s always true. Ex: “This is a scholarly source because it was published in a peer-reviewed academic journal.” “This source is secondary, because it analyzes other sources.”
If it is ambiguous, or your classification could reasonably be contested, consider the publisher, intended audience, overall goal, tone, and language (accessible vs. esoteric.)
Your prof may have told you to use RADAR to argue for the credibility of your source. I’ll focus on where to look for your assertions.
I recommend going through every letter in order, even when it feels more natural to combine/reorder them. That way, your professor can clearly see that you’ve hit everything.
Rationale: Journal articles, theses: usually stated explicitly after a brief introduction. Books: Introduction. Table of contents. Online encyclopedias: About page. Anything else: probably self-explanatory, but feel free to send me an ask.
Authority: Publisher: Peer-reviewed. Reputation. Affiliations/memberships. Awards. Longevity. Author: Bio. Other books and articles they’ve published on the subject. Teaching credentials. Prominent mentors.
Date: If it’s very recent, emphasize that. If it’s a field with little emerging research, say that. Additionally: Citations in recent articles. (Google Scholar is perfect for this.) Inclusion in more recent editions/anthologies. If the source is old, but the author is considered to be foundational, say that-- possibly with a note that you’ll take particular care to corroborate information you use. If the author is somewhat low-profile, but recent sources corroborate their info, state that.
Accuracy: Logical arguments. Reliable and plentiful citations. Peer-reviewed. Corroboration in other sources.
Relevancy: Often repetitive. “This source is about X, and my research question is about X.”
Usually self-explanatory. If it’s part of a long work, and you aren’t reading all of it, use the table of contents. If I mention the table of contents in Rationale, I mention that, and explain that I’ll only highlight the sections most relevant to my project.
