Directions

Using the topic you have already chosen, you will find five sources you think will be useful for your learning more about your issue and supporting your thesis. For each source will have three parts:

A citation in APA format. This tells you and your reader where to find the source.

A short 3 or 4 sentence summary of what the source covers. This helps you keep track of what’s informative and useful about the source.

An evaluation of the quality of the source on a scale of 1-10. 10 being best. You should aim for an 8 or above here. This helps you focus on the best sources first.

1. What to include
2. 5 Entries in alphabetical order by author.
3. Use only one website

Use two peer reviewed journal articles

Use two books or book chapters

Two Sample Entries in APA

• Liu, H. (2014). Effects of human resource outsourcing on service innovations in public sectors. Acta Oeconomica, 64, 13-24. Retrieved February 3, 2020, from
• www.jstor.org/stable/24857559
• This journal article analyses employeeàthat work as public servants in various sectors of government as the result of outsourcing Human Resources departments to foreign countries. It describes the results of Human Resource outsourcing on service concept, customer interface, and the delivery system in service innovation. It also monitors the effects of variables on the correlations between Human Resource outsourcing and Service Innovation. Rating: 7/10
• J´me, B. & Dennis A. (2003). The seven deadly sins of outsourcing [and executive commentary]. The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005), 17(2), 87-100. Retrieved February 3, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/4165958

This article focuses on how outsourcing initiatives fall short of management’s expectations. It details the failures of job outsourcing, failing to select the right vendorû overlooking personal issues; overlooking the hidden costs of outsourcing and the failure to plan an exit strategy. It adds how outsourcing failures are hidden and rarely reported because firms don want to make the public aware. It also evaluates the useful and non-usefulness of outsourcing. Rating: 8/10  

Tips on how to evaluate the quality of a source

Use the following questions to help you analyze the quality of your sources.  These are not specific areas to include in your annotations. Think of them more as a guideline, helping you to decide what you want to include in your annotation. To give your annotation depth, think about addressing at least four of the following points:

Purpose or argument:  What was the purpose for writing this article or doing the research described in the article?  Is the purpose specifically explained?  Is a certain message conveyed in the article?

Intended Audience:  To whom is the author speaking?  Is the article intended for the general public, scholars in the same discipline as the author, students, teachers, professionals, or a variety of audience?  Does the authoràwriting style, vocabulary, arrangement of the article reflect a particular audience?

Author Bias:   Can you tell what the author’s bias is or perhaps what assumptions are embedded in the articleàarguments or research?  

Author:  What do you know, or what can you find out about the author(s)?  What is the authoràoccupation, position, academic background, prior publishing experience, etc.?  Is the author qualified to write on the topic addressed in this article?  Why?

Information Source:  How was the information or data in the article obtained? Is the information based on a laboratory experiment, a questionnaire, personal interviews, observations, standardized tests, library research, or a combination of several of these methods?

Author Conclusion:  What conclusions does the author make?  Are they specifically stated or are they implied? Are the authoràconclusions justified by the research conducted or by the other information presented in the article? Does the author have any biases that skew the conclusions?

Relationship to Other Works:  How does this article compare to other articles on the same topic?  Does the conclusion agree with, or differ from, established scholarship, government policy, or conventional wisdom on the topic? Does the author mention other studies or published sources that agree or disagree with his/her point of view?  Is the information presented primarily for or against the authoràpoint of view?