Writing an Annotation
Part 2

*Note:
For current MLA style, 1st line should be at left margin, all the rest is indented 5 spaces, with the note usually run-on with the documentation. Note that I can't indent in this program to show you.

Also, these examples differ in several ways from the current accepted form you will be following. Try to locate the differences. For starters, Walker gives one form on p. 223, "Making an Annotated Bibliography," and another in her own "Appendix B: An Annotated List of Selected Reference Works."

These examples are a) to give you a sense of possible range in focus, style, and length, b) to convince you how important it is to check carefully for current accepted documentation style in your field, and c) to let you see how much better a job you could do. --DL]

1)
From:
Melissa Walker, Writing Research Papers: A Norton Guide (4th ed.) (New York: Norton, 1997).

Hareven, Tamara. "Social and Political Apprenticeship, 1920-1933." Eleanor Roosevelt: An American Conscience. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1968. 21-47. This chapter is about Eleanor Roosevelt's initial work with social reform and labor groups. It outlines her development and increasing influence in politics and women's rights. A good, concise overview of these years.

Lash, Joseph P. Eleanor and Franklin. New York: Norton, 1971. A broad, reliable basis for further study, this book is a good place to begin a study of the Roosevelts. Lash explores the environments in which they were raised and covers their lives up until Franklin's death.

Rice, Diana. "Mrs. Roosevelt Takes on Another Task." New York Times 2 Dec. 1928, sec. 5:5. This articles is based on an interview with Eleanor Roosevelt in which she discusses her coming role as First Lady of New York State. Her views on women in politics are particularly interesting and are reported in her own words.

2)
From:
Roberta Simone, The Immigrant Experience in American Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography (London: Scarecrow, 1995).

Chametzky, Jules. Our Decentralized Literature: Cultural Medications in Selected Jewish and Southern Writers. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
Comments on Cahan, Michael Gold, Henry Roth, Singer, and others.

Ling, Amy. Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry. New York: Pergamon, 1990.
A comprehensive historical and critical study of prose works by Chinese-American women writers, from the beginnings--e.g., Sui Sin Far (Edith Eaton)--to the present--e.g., Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan. Contains a bibliography with brief annotations.

Pagano, Jo. Golden Wedding. New York: Random House, 1943. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1975.
A sequel to The Paesanos. At their golden anniversary party, with their children around them, the lives of Luigi and Marcella Simone are reviewed. They had been born in Italy but met in the United States. Frightened by the Mafia, they moved to Colorado, to Utah, and finally to California.

Saldivar, Ramon. Chicano Narrative: The Dialectics of Difference. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
A theoretical perspective on fiction, with special attention to Villareal, Anaya, Hinojosa, and Cisneros. He asserts that "Chicano narrative should be seen as an active participant in [the] reconceptualization of American literary discourse" and that Chicano authors attempt to "fashion...a new, heterogeneous American consciousness within the dialectics of difference."

Wrobel, Paul. "The Polish American Experience: An Anthropological View of Ruth Tabrah's Pulaski Place and Millard Lampell's The Hero." Ethnic Literatures Since 1776: The Many Voices of America. Eds. Wolodymyr T. Zyla and Wendall M. Aycock. Lubbock: Proceedings of the Comparative Literature Symposium, Texas Tech Univ., Jan. 1976. IX (1978) II, 395-407.
The discussion suggests that there is little Polish-American literature so identified, because Polish-Americans have been discouraged from writing about themselves and their communities by a society which rewards assimilation and encourages homogeneity. A definition of Polish-American fiction is tentatively set forth and these two novels are discussed in that context.

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