Projects > Project 4

Project 4 -- Annotated Bibliography

The focus of this project will be on page layout, organization of ideas with hypertext links, using color, and graphics, and evaluation of resources that you find on the Web. (In at least one of projects 4 or 5 you should be using graphics appropriately.)

Using the Web, research a topic that interests you greatly. Create an annotated hypertext bibliography for your own use. Review at least 10 different sites (or pages) that relate to your topic. The difference between an annotated bibliography and a mere listing of resources is your voice--reflecting on, comparing, and contrasting the various sites you find. Here's an example of what to avoid.

Write a short introduction to your topic. Incorporate links to sites with good reference information and write short descriptions or summaries of what you find. Also give some indication of the authority of each site: is it an official site, maintained by an individual, or by an organization with an interest in the topic.

• Griffen's cycling site includes a well-written introduction to her topic.
• Jonothon's Physics Education review is well written, uses styles, and has good comments related to site authority.

Are there natural ways to group related sites together?

• Joel's site about recording your own music does a very good job of grouping related links.

The design challenges here include visually grouping the different kinds of information about each site together, and creating a degree of visual unity.

• Jeff's Dave McKean site manages to a high degree of visual consistency by making thumbnails all of the same size, and picking a similar motif (an eye) from each image. See also these screenshots for some other approaches.
• You might consider using a rows and columns layout.

You can also devise your own rating system if you like.

• Ruth's recipe reviews features a quick and dirty, but useful rating system.
  

This assignment is not a website review of the look and feel of a website, but rather a review of the unique aspects of the content of the sites! Orient your writing in this project to the content of the various sites, rather than the technology of how they're put together (though the content and the technology of how a site is put together are not always completely separate).

Make sure you try all your links once your bibliography has been 'published' on the webserver. Also, while viewing your site, test in a browser window set to several different widths (to indicate line-breaking problems).