Annotated Bibliography and Rhetorical Analysis?

I am embarrassed to be admitting this (beause I have apparently been out of school for so long), but at no time have I ever created an annotated bibliography in my educational career, which includes two bachelor's degrees, one master's degree, and another master's started but stopped, and I've never been asked to write one.  I have, as the resident English teacher, been asked to help others create one, and I've helped colleagues by referencing The University of Wisconsin at Madison's Writer's Handbook and Purdue's OWL.  I'll admit that I'm anxious about writing a research paper and the annotated bibliography.  I've just been out of school for so long I wonder if i remember how to do write in this way. 

What does teaching rhetorical analysis me to me?  I think this gets at the heart of a text, speech, or conversation (hereby referred to as "the message") of examining not just what was said, but how it was said, and what was the intent of the message.   Mom used to say this, "It's not what you said, it was how she took (interpreted) it.  I think rhetorical analysis is something, like that.  The process of decoding the message/content.