Annotated Bibliographies & Process Papers

When asked to create an Annotated Bibliography or a Process Paper, most students have no idea where to start or what this means. And neither did I in the beginning. However, after completing both of these assignments, these two tasks weren't as scary as they first seemed...trust me.

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Annotated Bibliography

Long story short, an annotated bibliography is a collection of citations of all the sources you used in your project (including primary sources) with an annotation (explanation) about why you used the source and how it contributed to your project. For NHD, the MLA format is what most students use to cite their sources.

**DO NOT BE AFRAID OF USING SOURCES! In the end, annotated bibliographies aren't just 1-2 pages...more like near 20 pages. However, make sure your sources are RELIABLE and that you don't compromise quality for quantity. You also have to annotate each source :)

NoodleTools is a savior when it comes to making annotations and entering your sources. Sign up and make a free account to easily be able to log your sources and provide a 3-5 sentence annotation. Additionally, if you are working in a group, you will be able to add collaborators to also add annotations and log sources. Once you are done, you can export the annotations and NoodleTools will automatically format the annotated bibliography correctly (see, not that bad).

I recommend citing a source as soon as possible or at least keep a list of the links/book titles you used for your project. This is because when you log your sources into NoodleTools, you will need information such as the date of publication and author name(s) of your sources.

**PLEASE don't save a long list of sources to cite and annotate at the last minute! This won't end well!

If you are still confused about annotated bibliographies click here to be redirected to the NHD website where they go into more depth on annotated bibliographies.

Process Paper

Now onto process papers. So, what is a process paper exactly? A process paper is much shorter than annotated bibliographies because process papers have a maximum of 500 words. In that word limit, you write about how you:

1. chose your topic

2. conducted your research

3. selected your presentation medium (documentary, exhibit, website, etc)

4. created your project in general

Most importantly, you should state how your project relates to the NHD Theme.

TIP: In order to write an effective process paper, you should take quality notes when researching.

To read an example of a strong process paper, click here.

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Process Papers and annotated bibliographies are given to the judges and they use this as another way to assess your project.

Overall, don't procrastinate making your annotated bibliography and citing your sources. Additionally, take notes when learning about your topic to have the correct information to include in your project and also to create a strong process paper! I believe in you!