Writing and Citations

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by an annotation, a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph. The annotation informs the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.

"A bibliography in which a brief explanatory or evaluative note is added to each reference or citation. An annotation can be helpful to the researcher in evaluating whether the source is relevant to a given topic or line of inquiry." (Dictionary of Library and Information Science, 2004)

After each citation write a 100-150 word paragraph in third person.

The elements include:

• Qualifications of the author(s)
  •  Degrees, experience, member on special boards or commissions.
• Purpose or scope
  •  What is the source about?
• Evaluate your source
  • Strength, weakness, or biases of the source.
•  Intended audiences or level of reading
  •  High school, undergraduate, graduate students, professionals, or the general public.
• Relationship to other works
  •  Compare and contrast your sources.
• Any findings or results
  • Results of  relevant scientific studies.
• Any special features that make the source special
  • Reference lists, maps, timelines, pictures etc..

When creating your Annotated Bibliography follow these steps:

1. Collect your resources.

2. Record your citations.  Check with your professor to find out how to format your annotated bibliography (e.g. MLA, APA, etc.).

3. Take notes on the scope and summary of  your sources.

4. Research the author's background and take notes.

5. Arrange and organize your list reflecting your instructor's requirements:

• Alphabetical by author's last name.
• Chronological either by date, or by period subject (century, decade or year).
• By Subtopic.
• By Format (articles, books, websites).

Abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles.

Annotations are descriptive and critical, describing the author's authority, point of view, as well as the scope and purpose of the source.

• Annotated Bibliographies, The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue
• Annotated Bibliographies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Annotated Bibliography, University of Wisconsin-Madison