Most of the time students fail to understand the difference between an annotated bibliography and an article summary. Students think that annotated bibliography is same as that of an article summary. However, this idea is completely wrong. Let us know about Annotated bibliography in detail.

What is an annotated bibliography and when is it used?

In simple words annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, journals and articles that is followed with a descriptive analysis of 100-150 words. An annotated bibliography is used when the relevance, importance and quality of sources are to be presented which would be used for citations.

How is it done?

Annotated bibliography is done with help of citations and follows certain steps:

Firstly, you need to have access to a complete paper or journal article which is to be cited as you would require that for annotated bibliography.

Secondly you will have to indentify certain areas that will be evaluated and analysed in your annotations. For example, focus on background of the study stated in article, whether the literatures review is well developed or not, data analysis methods and tools used and gaps in paper.

Thirdly, proceed to analyse the marked points and bring out the importance of article related with your study area. Be careful with the length. It must be concise and you must be able to present the central theme and scope of the article in your annotation.

5 fun activities for University Students during Christmas Holidays

Christmas holidays are around the corner and you all definitely must have some exciting plans to spend your holidays. The Christmas Break is quite a relief for the University Students from their hectic schedule of attending classes and working on their academic papers. The Christmas holidays not only break the monotony but also build up the excitement to spend quality time with your family and also to plan for your New Year Resolutions. So how about spending this Christmas holiday with some activities that will help in developing your personal skills and also in writing your academic papers? So let us start with 5 must do activities this Christmas for the University Students.

#1 Read your Favourite book – Reading not only improves your knowledge it is also a good memory exercise. The excitement during the Christmas Break is endless but nothing can be compared with the time you spend snuggling with your favourite book with a hot cup of chocolate near a blazing fireplace adorned in Christmas decorations.

#2 Learn some new words – Reading plays a big role in improving your vocabulary irrespective whether you prefer to read a novel or a newspaper. The new words you will learn this Christmas break will be come in handy when you will start writing your academic papers. Even if you face difficulty in starting your assignment paper, you can always take help from the Assignment Editing Experts.

#3 Build new connections and expand your social network – If you are an extrovert then building new connections is no big deal for you. But for those who are introvert and shy can work out on their social skills and build your social network and Christmas celebrations presents a big opportunity. Infact, you can start this exercise right from Thanksgiving to Christmas and thus, welcome the New Year with your new found friends. Interacting will also help you in boosting up your self-confidence and communication skills that will, in turn, come handy in the long run.

#4 Get up early and stretch your body – Your body definitely needs that extra stretch that will invigorate you to enjoy the festivities and Christmas delicacies with aplomb. Avoid lazing around and start stretching your muscles to get rid of lethargies. Stretching your body will boost your metabolism and thus you will get an extra dose of energy much needed to be part of the various Christmas activities.

#5 Work on Christmas Crafts or your favourite hobbies – Decorating your house with Christmas decorations or making gingerbread, Christmas provides ample opportunities for you to spend time with your loved ones and try your hands in crafting. Your academic schedule does not leave much time for your hobbies. This Christmas break you can happily dig your hands on to your favourite hobbies.

6 mistakes students must avoid while doing online research

You can learn many new things while doing online research, but finding relevant articles for your research paper can become quite a challenge. Whether you are writing your assignment or a research paper, research is the preliminary step for starting your work. Today the internet is the most widely and easily accessible platform for doing research. The fast-paced technology-driven devices like smartphones even made online research quicker just with a snap of your fingers. So, why still students struggle to find the right research material for writing their assignments? For obvious reasons, you cannot rely on the limited sources present on the internet or your textbooks for writing a good assignment. You need a lot more research materials to write good and relevant content for your assignments. So let us discuss 6 mistakes students must avoid while doing online research

1.    Doing online research blindly – Don’t start your online research blindly. You will only end up investing a lot of time and at times you may even get distracted. First, have a clear idea what you want to look for and then start searching for the reference materials.

2.    Too much dependence on the internet for online research – There are many more sources of doing your research. Don't be 100% dependent on the internet for your studies.

3.    Forgetting to bookmark the important sites – Many of you refer the online references repeatedly while writing your assignment but forget to bookmark these sites. Searching for the required sites will again kill your valuable time and your patience. Just remember to check your browsing history or apply the shortcut of bookmarking the required sites while doing your online research.

4.    Not using research databases – Google scholar is not the only online database for finding research materials. You can explore more research databases like ProQuest, JSTOR, PubMed while doing your online research.

5.    Citing wrong or broken links as references – One of the common mistakes done by the students while citing the references in their assignment is providing broken links. You must make sure that you copy the entire link of the site you want as a reference to a notepad while doing your online research. This will save time and also have no chance of linking broken or incomplete URLs in your assignment.

6.    Dependence on one search engine like Google – Google is not the only search engine for online research. Use other search engines like yahoo, MSN, infomine for finding more references for writing your assignment.