Using Academic Search Complete
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
(EBSCO) A scholarly multi-disciplinary database that provides full text, indexing, and abstracts, videos and images from journals, magazines and newspapers. Full text of articles from 6500+ journals, magazines and newspapers, plus image collections.
Finding Pop Culture Research
These websites offer resources for researching the cultural activities, commercial products and media that are aimed at or reflect the tastes of the general population.
Using APA
Click Here to access the link to the LSC CyFair Library APA LibGuide.
"APA Style" refers to guidelines published by the American Psychological Association.
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition details the organization's rules on how to format a paper, how to document research sources you use, and other matters of writing style. The American Psychological Association released a new edition of the Publication Manual in 2020. You can read about the changes on the APA Style website.
The APA Publication Manual is available at the first floor library reference desk (two-hour checkout, in-library use only) and for purchase, but students can refer to help guides like this for almost any question about APA Style. The American Psychological Association also publishes the Concise Guide to APA Style, Seventh Edition specifically for students.
Why is APA Style so important?
If you don't use a citation style to document the sources you used to help write a research paper, you're in danger of plagiarism.
Even if you don't mean to plagiarize, not citing your sources correctly might make it look as though you're passing someone else's words or ideas off as your own. There are serious consequences for plagiarism at LSC-CyFair.
The best way to protect yourself from plagiarism is to get familiar with APA Style and use it consistently.
Annotated Bibliography
Click here to access the link to LSC CyFair Library Annotated Bibliography LibGuide
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and other sources. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
You will summarize the relevant information you're getting from that source (but remember, this isn't your paper – you are summarizing, not presenting all the information itself) as well as how this well help you in your research (by providing background information, by exploring a certain angle, by presenting a contrary idea...).
- APA Student Paper Template
Created specifically for LSC-CyFair students; feel free to download, save as, and overwrite for your paper!
What are the components of an annotated bibliography?
- Begin with an APA reference list-style citation.
- Refer to the page in this guide entitled References for guidelines and examples
- Add an annotation, a brief and concise statement about the source. Think in terms of a "note" consisting of 5-6 sentences:
- One sentence to evaluate why the author is an expert on the topic (authority)
- A sentence on the intended audience of the source (purpose)
- A few sentences (perhaps a paraphrase) that explain how this source will illuminate your topic and how you will use the content in your paper (usefulness or relevance)
- Any other criteria of note for this topic or discipline
- Organize entries (citation + annotation) just as you would your Reference List:
- Double space and use hanging indentation
- Alphabetize reference list entries by the last name of the first author of each work
- For multiple sources by the same author(s), list entries in chronological order from earliest to most recent
Annotated Bibliography Example
