Annotated Bibliographies

Many professors ask you to write annotated bibliographiesbibliographic information about

your primary sources and a short description of eachas preparation for writing a paper. Often,
these bibliographies are no more than a page or two in length, but they are important because
they force you to get your teeth into the source material and they give your professor the
opportunity to comment on your use of sources and suggest some that you may have overlooked.

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources (may be any variety of materials,

books, documents, videos, articles, web sites, CD-ROMs, etc.) with an accompanying paragraph
that describes, explains, and/or evaluates each entry in terms of quality, authority, and relevance.

The bibliographic citation is a description of the essential elements of the work (including author,
title, & publisher), listed (in this case) MLA format with specific capitalization, indentation, and
punctuation.

The annotation following the bibliographic citation is a short critical review of the work, 3-5
sentences. The annotation should include: a brief summary of the content and usefulness of the
item (for this assignment, the usefulness in your own research); a summary of the authors
central theme and the authors authority or background on the subject; a description of the
evidence the author used to support the thesis and his or her bias towards the topic; a statement
about how and why the source will be helpful for your own research.

What is the Purpose of an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography may serve a number of purposes, including but not limited to:

a review of the sources on a particular subject

illustrate the quality of research that you have done

provide examples of the types of sources available

describe other items on a topic that may be of interest to the Audience

explore the subject for potential further research

Style for Annotated Bibliographies

When you write an annotated bibliography in preparation for submission for approval of your
research project, consider that the professionalism of the product is a direct reflection of the
quality of the paper that will result. Therefore, be stylistically conscientious, following these tips:

Begin by listing complete bibliographic information (author, year, source name,

publisher, etc.) just as you would on the References page at the end of a paper.
Provide a sentence or two describing the contents of the source.
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 Summarize the various relevant topic areas that the source discusses.
Avoidvague phrasing and empty sentences. Weed out any generic sentences such as
This source is very useful because it has tons of really good information.
Use present tense and future tense verbs to facilitate the immediacy of the information
and the actual future use of sources.
Discuss the exact way that you will use the source (e.g., for background information,
data, graphics, as a bibliographic tool).
Carefully judge the value of the source, considering, for example, its level of detail, bias,
or the timeliness of its data.
Note if the sources text or bibliography will lead you to other sources.
Comment on anything that you find especially noteworthy about a sourceis it
controversial? Definitive? Political? New?
Format the annotated bibliography so that each description is clearly associated with the
proper source.

Organization of an Annotated Bibliography

The organization of the annotated bibliography, if not prescribed by faculty instructions, may be
one of various methods, including but not limited to:

alphabetical
chronological

date of publication

time period of subject matter (century, era, decade, event, year)

by subtopic

by format (articles, books, government documents, media, web pages, etc.)

by language

How can I write an annotated bibliography without reading the whole book?
To write an effective annotation, you need not necessarily read the entire work. You should
always read the introduction and the conclusion. You should also read any notes provided by the
author. Read the authors credentials and look at the sources the author uses to draw conclusions.
For a book, look carefully at the table of contents and index to see what topics the author covers
and check the footnotes for references to other helpful material.

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*** Note: Many online databases provide abstracts or summaries of the articles they index.
You may not copy those abstracts and present them as your own annotations. Doing so counts
as plagiarism.

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