Annotated Bibliography: Grading Rubric

Name of author:_____________________________
____________________________
Grade: _____________________________

1. MLA General Formatting (10 points). Is the document double-spaced? Written in 12 pt., Times New
Roman font? Only one space after all punctuation marks (especially periods)? Margins are 1 inch on all
sides? The first line of the introductory paragraph is indented one half inch from the left margin? Header in
upper right hand corner includes last name with page number?

2. MLA Formatting for 1st Page (10 points). Does the upper left hand corner include necessary information
in the correct order (author’s name, instructor’s name, course / section number, and date)? Is the title
centered (not underlined, bolded, or italicized)?

3. Title (5 points). Is a title included? Did it catch your attention? Is it interesting, informative, and indicative
of the writer’s stance?

4. Introduction and Thesis (20 points). Is an introductory paragraph included? Does it give a general idea of
the topic explored? Is there a clear and compelling claim (thesis statement) in the introduction? After
reviewing the annotations, do you think the thesis can be well supported with sources provided? Are there
any sources provided that provides a counterargument?

5. Citations and Annotations: Formatting and Content (30 points). Does each citation follow the most up-
to-date version of MLA formatting (use the back of this page for reference, and correct every citation that
doesn’t follow MLA 2009)? Does each annotation provide the appropriate information as identified by the
assignment instructions given in class (source’s main argument, the writer’s stance, and the source’s
relevance to student’s paper)? Can any be improved? How so / how not?

6. Citations: A Brief Evaluation (25 points). Use the “At A Glance” activity on page 125 in your textbook to
briefly evaluate each source.
 MLA Formatting: the Works Cited Page
• Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper.
• Label and center the page Works Cited (do not italicize, underline, bold, or put the words in quotation marks).
• Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
• Use the hanging indent for the second and subsequent lines of citations.
• Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not capitalize articles, short prepositions, or
conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle: “Gone with the Wind: An Analysis”.
• New to MLA 2009: For every entry, you must determine the Medium of Publication.
• New to MLA 2009: Writers are no longer required to provide URLs for Web entries.
• New to MLA 2009: Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and
quotation marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles).
• Entries are listed by author name (or, for entire edited collections, editor names). Author names are written
last name first; middle names or middle initials follow the first name. Do not list titles or degrees with names.
Do, however, include suffixes. For example, a work by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be cited as “King,
Martin Luther, Jr.,” with the suffix following the first or middle name and a comma.
• What to do with more than one author for a source:
o Smith, John, Derek Garrett, Allison Garrett, and Jane Doe. The Great Joy of Sighing. New
York: Penguin, 2021. Print.
• What to do with more than one work by one author:
o If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, order the entries alphabetically by
title, and use three hyphens in place of the author's name for every entry after the first.
o Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. [...]
---. A Rhetoric of Motives. [...]
• Book Sources (Books, Anthologies / Collections, Encyclopedias / Dictionaries, etc.):
o Lastname, Firstname. “Chapter Title (if necessary)”. Title of Book. Place of Publication:

Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

• Periodical Sources (Magazines, Newspapers, and Journals):
 o Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Day Month Year: pages. Medium of publication.
• Electronic Sources (Online Magazine, Newspaper, Journal, Database, etc.):
o Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). “Name of Page (if necessary)”. Name of Site.
Version number. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or
publisher), date of resource creation (if available). Medium of publication. Date of access.

All information and guidelines taken directly (i.e. word for word or “tweaked” by me) from the Owl at Purdue website.
Check it out for more examples and formats of specific sources that may stump you!