Annotated Bibliographies

What Is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations for several different document types. After each citation is a short description (usually 50-150 words) that includes a summary and both subjective and objective evaluations—this makes up the annotation. The annotation helps the reader evaluate the source for relevance, quality and accuracy. Note: annotations differ from abstracts; where abstracts are a writer’s summary of his or her own argument, annotations are a reader’s summary and analysis of another’s work.

What Is Included in an Annotated Bibliography?

Annotated bibliographies generally include summary, analysis and evaluation.

Summary

The summary addresses the work as a whole and addresses issues concerning the main arguments. A summary objectively reports the topics covered and what points the source’s author makes or attempts to make.

Analysis

The analysis portion is an evaluation considering the source’s usefulness, how it compares with other sources, and how reliable it is. An analysis also addresses concerns such as how biased or not biased a source is, what the goal of the work is and if the author reached that goal.

Evaluation

The evaluation section can be more subjective and concerns the source’s helpfulness overall. An evaluation discusses how the source helps address your argument, how you can use it in your project and how it affected your perspective on the topic. Be aware of the use of first person (I, me, my) in this section and try to avoid it.

How Do You Begin an Annotated Bibliography?

Before beginning your annotated bibliography, check with your instructor’s guidelines to decide if your bibliography needs to include analysis and evaluation in addition to summary. If so, include all three elements; if not, only include what your instructor wants.

First, search for sources (books, periodicals, etc.) that relate to your topic and contain useful information, then cite the sources according to the determined style (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.).

Next, write your concise annotation just below the citation. Be sure to include all the elements specified by your instructor. You should write the annotation in paragraph form using complete sentences and ideas and format the spacing and layout of each entry according to the same documentation style used for your citation and per the directions of your instructor. Standard bibliographical protocol requires you to alphabetize all entries by author’s last name.

What Does an Annotated Bibliography Look Like?

Here is an example of an annotated scholarly article entry for an article found in a database. The topic of the annotated bibliography is the tragic hero in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, and the entry is presented twice: once in MLA format and again in APA format.

MLA Example

McCollom, William G. “The Downfall of the Tragic Hero.” College English 19.2 (1957): 51-56. JSTOR. Web. 13 Feb. 2010. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/372701?origin=JSTOR-pdf>.

In this journal article, William G. McCollom examines why and how tragic heroes fail. McCollom investigates what makes the tragic hero differ from more triumphant heroes by examining four typical types of tragic heroes and explains that because of their backgrounds and because of what is expected of them – either by family or by fate – the hero must fall: his plight is too great and there is no way to succeed. The text is heavy and the style is very scholarly, so this is nothing to merely skim through, but readers who spend time with the text will walk away with a deeper understanding of tragic heroes.

Note MLA format generally calls for both the entry and the annotation to be double-spaced; check with your instructor to find his or her expectations.

APA Example

McCollom, W. G. (1957, November). The downfall of the tragic hero . College English, 19(2), 51-56. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/372701?origin=JSTOR-pdf

Should I Use Quotes from the Text in the Annotated Bibliography?

When a writer coins a phrase or term that seems pertinent to the annotation, then you should use the writer’s words. Similarly, if the writer’s words are perfect to expressing an idea, then it is acceptable to use direct quotes. However, you should keep the number of quotes to a minimum—perhaps only a few words. When quoting, be sure to include the page number.

Here’s an example of an annotation that quotes the writer’s words:

MLA Example Using Direct Quotations

Hutchison, Coleman. “Whistling ‘Dixie’ for the Union (Nation, Anthem, Revision).” American Literary Review 19.3 (2007): 603-628.

Coleman Hutchison argues that the North and South’s continual revisions of “Dixie” position the song as a “cultural and ideological production,” one appropriated by the many voices of the Civil War, from black to white, local to national, North to South (603). Hutchison demonstrates how the song’s initial revision from an African American dialect to a more “traditional” dialect allowed the song to take on broader meanings and, importantly, allowed the melody to accommodate different lyrics. As Southerners altered the song’s lyrics to fit their needs, Northerners sought desperately for their own national anthem, proving the role of song in establishing a unified identity. Eventually, the North also rewrote the lyrics of “Dixie” in order to reclaim it as their own. Hutchison shows how these substantial revisions of the song “make sense of and manage the presence of competing nationalisms” (623).