Annotated Bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources (usually on a narrow topic) in which each citation is followed by a brief paragraph that summarizes, describes, and/or critically evaluates the source.

Depending on length and purpose, an annotated bibliography may be just one long list of alphabetized entries (as in a normal bibliography), or it may be categorized by subject, material type, time period, etc.

Annotated bibliographies may be produced using any citation style. Ask your professor if he/she requires that you use a certain style. The most common citation styles include APA, Chicago, and MLA, and examples formatted in each of these styles are shown below.

In your annotations, you are generally expected to do more than merely summarize each source; some critical analysis is usually required. There are no hard and fast rules about what to include in annotated bibliography entries. However, unless your professor has specified otherwise, most entries usually include some of the following elements:

• Brief description/summary of the work cited
• Comments about the work’s usefulness or quality, usually including attention to one or
  more of the following features:
  1. the scope or relevance of the work
  2. the intended audience
  3. the author’s credibility or expertise
  4. the work’s relationship to other works in the area of study
• Comments about any special features of the work, if necessary or relevant (graphs, charts, appendices, etc.)
• The length and style of each annotation varies according to the purpose and audience for the annotated bibliography, but most annotations are written in complete sentences and fall
  between 50-150 words.

The APA style manual does not specifically address how to format an annotated bibliography. The 5th edition of the APA manual does include an annotated "suggested reading" list in section 9.03 on pages 368-377, which seems to give users some guidance on this topic.

In the 5th edition's suggested reading list, each citation is formatted in standard APA style (with the second and any subsequent lines of the citation indented). Then each annotation begins on the next line of text, and each line of the annotation is indented approximately three more spaces than a standard indented line of text. All lines are double-spaced, and no extra lines are added between the end of an annotation and the next citation in the list.

An excerpt from a sample annotated bibliography done in APA style is shown below. Since the APA style manual does not specifically state how to format an annotated bibliography, you may wish to check with your professor to verify that the format below is acceptable.

For more assistance with APA Style, see the Rosen Research Guide on APA Style, or consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Rosen REF BF76.7 .P83 2010).

The Chicago style manual only states that in an annotated bibliography "annotations may simply follow the publication details (sometimes in brackets if only a few entries are annotated) or may start a new line, often with a paragraph indention" (p. 613), and no examples are given.

Fortunately, however, Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (which is heavily based on Chicago and is widely accepted as a good alternate source of information on Chicago style) states more clearly that each "annotation begins on the line following the entry proper and should be indented at least five spaces" (p. 174), and an example entry is shown.

Therefore, each citation is formatted in standard Chicago style (with the second and any subsequent lines of the citation indented). A blank line is added between the citation and the annotation, and each annotation starts a new indented paragraph. All lines are single-spaced (as is standard in Chicago style), but one extra line is added between the annotation and the next citation in the list.

An excerpt from a sample annotated bibliography done in Chicago/Turabian style is shown below.

For more assistance with Chicago Style, see the Rosen Research Guide on Chicago Citation Style, or consult the Chicago Manual of Style (Rosen REF Z253 .U69 2003) or A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Rosen REF LB2369 .T8 1996).

The MLA style guide provides a clear example of an annotated bibliography entry in section 5.3.1 on page 130.

Each citation is formatted in standard MLA style (with the second and any subsequent lines of the citation indented). Then the annotation follows immediately thereafter, without the addition of any line breaks. All subsequent lines are indented, and all lines are double-spaced. No additional lines are added between the end of an annotation and the next citation in the list.

An excerpt from a sample annotated bibliography done in MLA style is shown below.

For more assistance with MLA Style, see the Rosen Research Guide on MLA Citation Style, or consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Rosen REF LB2369 .G53 2009).