Preparing the Annotated Bibliography

Objective
Inclusion of an Annonated Bibliography in the Laboratory Report will allow you to demonstrate your literature search process.  An Annotated Bibliography needs to be included in two of the four assigned projects.

Introduction
Chemists refer to the literature at many points in their work, but always at the beginning of an experiment or research project.  This preliminary review of the literature informs the chemist of the important or relevant work that has already been done in her area of interest.  It also saves time by preventing needless repetition of developmental steps.  Most importantly, it is in the literature where chemists find descriptions of the methodology needed in their own work.

Description
Formal lab reports and journal articles typically contain a section usually the 'Introduction" where the author briefly discusses the previously published works that are significant to her own current work.  This review demonstrates that the author has carefully researched his topic and is aware of the scientific context of his current work.  It may also reference work that will help the reader to understand the current work.  

The Annotated Bibliography is a abbreviated form of literature review.  In essence, it is a list of the resources you consulted as you developed your research, but each item in the list contains a brief "annotation" - descriptive and evaluative comments - about the work.  While Annotated Bibliographies are not part of the structure of the typical article, they are useful tools for students to demonstrate their research into the literature of a topic under examination.  

For your work in Chem360, the Annotated Bibliography must contain the following elements:
 

Complete citation to the work in ACS format (with title included).

Brief description of how you found the article (database used, search strategy)

Brief description of the content and focus of the article

Brief description of how the article is or is not important to your work

Your discussion of the article may be written quite informally.  A telescopic (brief phrases) or "bullet point" style is fine.  What is important is that you communicate that you have been critical in your selection of the work in support of your research.                                                                    back

Sample Annotation

A method for forensic identification of vegetable oil stains-rapid analysis of carboxylic acids with methyl esterification using purge-and-trap gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.     

Ehara, Y.; Sakamoto, K.; Marumo, Y.  J. Foren. Sci.  2001,  46,  1462-1469.  

Search:  SciFinder (fiber analysis and vegetable oils)

Describes a rapid and effective method for identifying vegetable oils from a variety of fibers, including cotton.

I am working on identifying the source of an oil stained dishtowel found after a melee erupted between the Iron Chef and Emeril.  A bystander was injured by a "flipped" towel.  Since the Iron Chef uses peanut oil and Emeril uses olive oil, I believe I can identify the perpetrator of the towel-borne injury with the method described in this article.                                                                                    
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