LibGuides: Writing 101: Latinx Literature and Culture: Cite Sources & Create Annotated Bibliographies

Citation Tools

Citation tools allow you to save and organize your research. They also let you create formatted bibliographies.

A personal citation library designed to directly import references from multiple databases. In Refworks you can organize and manage your citations, share them with colleagues, and format bibliographies.

Downloadable as a standalone program or a Firefox extension, Zotero is designed to store content in any format, including PDFs, images, audio and video files, and snapshots of web pages. Zotero operates with thousands of sites, and automatically indexes your library for ease of access.

Downloadable as a standalone program from OIT, EndNote is a powerful citation tool for organizing your research and creating formatted citations. In addition to the standalone option, you can create an EndNote Web account.

Get EndNote | Create an EndNote Web account
Overview of features
EndNote User Manual

MLA format and Annotated Bibliographies

In this class you will be using MLA citation style; below are links to how to cite in MLA and examples of annotated bibliographies using MLA:

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style. Print Version and the MLA Tutorial at OWL Purdue Writing Lab
Annotated Bibliography Samples at OWL Purdue Writing Lab
- What is the subject matter of each source? What is the main argument?
- What type of evidence does the source employ?
- What does the source contribute to your research topic?
- Is the source helpful and interesting or not? Why? Actions to take
- Find and record citations to books, articles, and other resources on your research topic. Examine each item and select those that provide the most useful material on your topic.
From Duke's Writing Studio Handout on Annotated Bibliography:
An annotated bibliography is an analytic guide to academic resources on a research topic. For each resource (book, article, documentary, etc.), it includes a citation and a brief (2-4 sentence) description and evaluation, or annotation. The annotation is intended to assess the relevance and quality of each resource. Questions to ask:
- Summarize each source’s content. Include ideas about the subject matter, main argument, and evidence it uses.
- Assess the source’s strengths and weaknesses. State why the source is interesting or helpful or why it is not.
- Combine your summary and analysis into a 3-4 sentence paragraph.

Elements of a Citation

Example MLA Article Citation (Click to Enlarge)

Common elements of an article citation

Author
Article Title
Source Title (Journal, Magazine, or Newspaper)
Volume & Issue
Date
Pages
Format: Print or Online (if online, include: database name, access date, and/or DOI)

Example MLA Book Citation (Click to Enlarge)

Common elements of a book citation

Author
Book Title
Publisher Location
Publisher
Publication Date
Format

Data Points About Sources

Common elements of a book citation

Author
Book Title
Publisher Location
Publisher
Publication Date
Format

Examples for Type of Publication:

Book (popular, scholarly, fiction, textbooks, dissertation, etc.); Reference Books (Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Chronologies, etc.)
Atlases and Maps
Newspapers
Academic and Trade Journals
Popular journals
Government Reports, Organization’s report, and Legal Documents
Press Releases and Advertising
Flyers, Pamphlets, Leaflets
Multimedia sources captured on CD, DVD, etc.
Web sites
Weblogs / Blogs
Message boards, Discussion lists, and Chat rooms
Multimedia content hosted on the web
...more