Small Research Website: Annotated Bibliography
Due date: Sunday, October 26, 2025 at 11:59 pm
Points value: 50 points
As part of the small research website assignment, you will create a short annotated bibliography to summarize your research progress in your topic area of choice. By giving a preview of the sources you have studied while researching your topic, you will demonstrate your ability to find and use effective, credible web sources.
Finding Credible Sources
The research you gather for your small research website should come from credible sources written from a position of authority. Ideally, these sources will be web-based.
Unlike traditional research papers, the sources you use for this project do not have to come from academic journals (although, of course, they can). Instead, consider the alternative for your topic area. For example, Wikipedia is not an effective primary source (unless you are researching wikis); however, a wiki page may be—i.e., if your topic is PHP, you could gather information from the PHP wiki.
Citing on the Web
Now, you’ve likely created annotated bibliographies before. This assignment is not nearly as all-encompassing. You don’t have to worry about MLA or APA formatting; that’s not what I’m looking for here, because that’s not how it works in an online, nonlinear environment.
How do you cite web-based sources? Through hyperlinks.
A hyperlink directly to the source in question makes it easy for your readers to verify the information for themselves. Think of every online resource you regularly use—news articles, blogs, social media—they all use hyperlinks to connect readers to source material.
Hyperlinks are how you will cite web-based sources for both your annotated bibliography and your research website. If you have an offline source you want to use, let me know. We can talk about the best way to cite it on your website.
Writing an Annotated Bibliography
As you are researching your topic, write an annotated bibliography for your small research website.
Your annotated bibliography should include a variety of sources; students in 573 should include at least three sources, and students in 679 should include at least five sources.
For each citation, include a link to the source as well as four to five sentences summarizing your findings. Provide contextual links to your source material (as opposed to “click here” phrasing). For more information about correctly using hyperlinks, see p. 25–28 in the Writing Spaces Web Writing Style Guide.
Please submit your annotated bibliography in HTML/CSS form, just like you did for the proposal.
Remember to let me know if you have any questions. I'm excited to see what you are learning about your chosen topic!