Best Practices:
If possible take notes with pen and paper:
According to this 2014 study, "The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking," taking notes by hand is more effective for learning than typing notes.
Read first, take notes after
Read carefully through the text completely. Think about what you just read. Understand it. Then without looking at the text write down the important facts and details.
Write the main ideas in your own words.
In your own words
Paraphrase. Take notes in your own words. Avoid writing complete sentences - use bullet points.
Quotes
If you are going to write down a complete sentence put it in quotation marks and only use it in your paper as a quote with a reference to the author and a citation.
For this project, your teacher is asking for an annotated bibliography.
A bibliography is a list of the sources you used and consulted for your research project.
An annotation is a summary/description and evaluation.
Your source annotation should include:
An example:
Here is an example bibliographic entry in the MLA format:
Ingri D'aulaire, and Edgar Parin D'aulaire. D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. Doubleday, An Imprint Of Random House Children’s Books, A Division Of Penguin Random House Llc, 2017.
Here is that same entry with an annotation:
Ingri D'aulaire, and Edgar Parin D'aulaire. D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths. Doubleday, An Imprint Of Random House Children’s Books, A Division Of Penguin Random House Llc, 2017. This book has short versions of all of the major Greek myths including gods, goddesses, heroes and monsters. This book had excellent coverage of the Persephone and Hades story and provided superb details - such as how Hades managed to trick Persephone and kidnap her - that helped make my final presentation of the story much stronger.
Link to the Annotation Builder Worksheet
Want to know more about annotated bibliographies? Check out this page on the Purdue O.W.L.
Use the index to help you find your topic! - The index is usually at the back of the book and is arranged alphabetically.