Why make an annotated bibliography?
Annotated bibliographies are paragraph-length descriptions of scholarly sources. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to:
- Guide readers by providing a list of sources on a specific subject
- Briefly describe a source
- Analyze the usefulness or significance of a source
An annotated bibliography is helpful for making sense of how sources relate to one another for incorporating into a literature review. Collections of annotated bibliographies have been published as books or articles.
Components of an annotated bibliography
- The source's citation in an appropriate citation style
- A description of the authority/background/credentials of the author of the source
- A summary of the source's format
- Overview of the source's central argument and/or findings
- An evaluation of the source
- An explanation of how the work informs your research
Example of an annotated bibliography entry
Source: Owens, T. C., Callier, D. M., Robinson, J. L., & Garner, P. R. (2017). Towards an interdisciplinary field of Black girlhood studies. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 6(3), 116-132.
Suggested Resources
- OWL at Purdue Annotated BibliographiesPurdue's OWL site provides sample annotated bibliographies using MLA and APA citations.
- Annotated Bibliography TutorialThis tutorial distinguishes annotated bibliographies from journal abstracts and provides a sample annotated bibliography with a citation in APA format. This tutorial was developed by Cornell University Library.
- Annotated BibliographiesThis guide contains a useful infographic that describes all the components of an annotated bibliography. The guide was created by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.