NURS 670: Communication and Conflict Resolution: Annotated Bibliography

• Research, identify, locate and read scholarly and professional articles, books and documents for your bibliography
• Critically screen, analyze and evaluate the sources
• organize the sources in a logical order
• Create citations in proper APA format (see APA tab)
• Compose annotations

• Double space an annotated bibliography
• Cite references as you would for a paper, using hanging indents
• Compose up to two paragraphs per citation
• No additional spaces between entries
• Include title page in APA Style
• Use NoodleTools! It will do the formating for you.  

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources in proper citation format, each with a descriptive paragraph. The description may critique, analyze or just summarize the content of the item. For this assignment,  you will write a critical/evaluative annotation for each source, critically appraising the evidence that addresses your practice problem. 

A good annotated bibliography:

• encourages you to think critically about the content of the works you are using, the importance of the works within the field of study, and the relation of the works to your own research and ideas.

• proves you have read and understand your sources.

• establishes your work as a valid source and you as a competent researcher.

• provides a way for others to decide whether a source will be helpful to their research if they read it.

*Excerpted from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Annotated Bibliography should be the final result after a thorough review of the literature on your topic. Different databases should be searched to get different perspectives. If 8-10 sources are required, you should be reviewing many more sources (20-25), in detail,  before making final selections.

Ultimately, you are evaluating the articles to determine how good the information is and can this evidence contribute to addressing the practice problem you chose for your Action Plan. A critical analysis of  the research should discuss the strengths, weaknesses and findings of the study. It should also include credibility factors like the author's qualifications and writing style and integrity factors, such as were all steps of the research process followed. There are several systems for evaluating and grading research (see AHRQ and Fawcett text on left), but some standards for research studies (qualitative research, particularly) that should be evaluated by you are

• Specific reseach questions set forth
• Defined and justified sample
• Valid data collection
• Appropriate analytic methods
• Interpretations based on the data*

*Fink, A. (2009). Conducting Research Literature Reviews. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Take a look at this example of an acceptable annotated bibligraphy: