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.

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 literature 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 reader

 explore the subject for further research

The annotated bibliography may be selective or comprehensive in its coverage. A selective annotated bibliography includes just those items that are best for the topic while an exhaustive annotated bibliography attempts to identify all that is available on a subject.

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

Annotations vs. Abstracts

Annotations in an annotated bibliography usually perform two functions, describe the source and evaluate the source. The annotation is a concise description of a particular source, including important aspects of content not evident in the title. It enables the researcher to establish the relevance of a specific journal article, book, research report, or government document, etc. and to decide whether to consult the full text of the work.

Abstracts, such as those found in various periodical databases or those accompanying scholarly journal articles are usually just descriptive summaries.

Structure of an Annotation

• Length:

Generally, annotations constitute one paragraph and are approximately 100 -150 words long, with a goal of concise and explicative annotations

• Person:

The third person is the standard, though first person may be appropriate for certain types of annotated bibliographies.

• Language and Vocabulary:

Use the vocabulary of the author, as much as possible, to convey the ideas and conclusions of the author. If you use a quotation excerpted from the work set it within quotation marks.

Vary your sentence structure and try to avoid repetivitive vacuuous phrases in your annotations, such as, “The author states,” “This article concerns,” or “The purpose of this report is,” as well as sentences starting with “It was suggested that,” “It was found that,” and “It was reported that.”

• Format – Sentences:

Whole sentences are preferable, but single descriptive words, and simple phrases or lists may be acceptable.

• Format – Paragraphs:

Annotations should be one paragraph long. The paragraph should contain a statement of the work’s major thesis, from which the rest of the sentences can develop.

Citation Format You must use APA

Examples of an Annotated Bibliography Entry

Example 1:

Tran, A. & Tow, A. M. (1997) America, your children are left behind. Journal of Paralegal Education and Practice, 13 (16) 115-119.

A refugee of the Vietnam War writes an overview of the legal status of Amerasians, particularly those from Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The extensive bibliography in this law review article is especially useful for identifying relevant legislation on Amerasians.

Example 2:

Broude, N. (1991) Impressionism: A feminist reading. New York: Rizzoli,

In this publication Broude has taken full advantage of her feminist lens to scrutinize modern French science. Her text is accessible and reader-friendly and uses poststructuralism without becoming a slave to its theories. Her systematic examination of the field, particularly in “The Gendering of Art, Science, and Nature in the Nineteenth Century,” reveals underlying patterns of gender discrimination inherent in traditional French philosophy, which upholds Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am.” Her examination of the social relations between art and science compels readers to take a harder more skeptical look at the sexual politics of postmodernism, whise theory seems to be rooted within the French Cartesian tradition. Her book should be require reading for anyone interest in art, the feminine principle, and how it is treated in a male-oriented universe.

Example 3:

Dorival, B. (1976) Ukiyo-e and European painting. In dialogue in art; Japan and the West. pp. 27-71, Tokyo: Kodansha.

Known in France around 1860, Ukiyo-e prints had an immediate influence on the vision and the craft of painters. First, Theodore Rousseau and Millet and then Whistler, Manet, and mainly Degas were profoundly affected. Asymmetrical compositions, scenes and landscapes represented from above or below, figures shown in close-up, pale palette, flat areas of color, the replacement of Albertian perspective with the system of opposed diagonals: all these innovations were taken up by the Impressionists, particularly Monet, who learned moreover not to reduce the scene he was painting to the limits of the canvas, and absorbed a pantheistic feeling for nature contrary to traditional Western humanism. Japanese graphic art had a continuing influence on French painting from the Post-Impressionists to the Nabis and the Fauves, as well as on the work of Ensor, Munch, Klimt and others. After the Renaissance rediscovery of ancient art, nothing had so influenced European painting as Japanese prints.

If you want another resource: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm

APA cite: http://healthlinks.washington.edu/hsl/styleguides/apa.html\

The following are sample entries for the most commonly used types of sources. If you have a source not covered here, consult the complete MLA handbook. These entries should be double-spaced; we have used single spaces here simply to save room.

BOOKS

Citation entries for books generally list three main sections for information about your source:

author name: last name first;

full title of the work: book and journal titles are underlined or italicized; article titles are put in quotation marks; and

publication information: city of publication, name of publisher, and date.

Each of these sections is followed by a period and two spaces.

I. A Book by a Single Author:

Light, Paul C. Forging Legislation. New York: Norton, 1992.

Fairbanks, Carol. Prairie Women: Images in American and

Canadian Fiction. New Haven: Yale UP, 1986.II. An Anthology:

Allen, Robert C., ed. Channels of Discourse: Television and

Contemporary Criticism. Chapel Hill: U of North

Carolina P, 1987.Note that in all three of these entries

the title is underlined or italicized;

there are two spaces between the three sections of the entry;

often-used words, such as “University” and “Press” use only initials, i.e., UP means “University Press;” no periods are used;

only the first line is at the margin; all other lines are indented five spaces; and

there is only one blank space after each colon.

III. A Book by Two or More Persons:

Berry, Jason, Jonathan Foose, and Tad Jones. Up from the

Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music since World War II.

Athens: U of Georgia P, 1986.Note here that only the FIRST author’s name is inverted; the rest in the list are in regular order.

IV. An Anonymous Book:

Encyclopedia of Photography. New York: Crown, 1984.V. A Work in an Anthology:

Since articles are only a part of a larger work, you must also provide your reader with page numbers. The numbers should be for the whole article, not just for the pages you have used.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Black Theater: A

20th Century Collection of the Work of Its Best

Playwrights. Ed. Lindsay Patterson. New York: Dodd,

1971. 221-76.Note that the title of the play, A Raisin in the Sun, is underlined or italicized (as all play titles are), as is the title of the anthology. “Works Cited” pages follow regular rules of capitalization, underlining, and quotation marks for titles.

Lazard, Naomi. “In Answer to Your Query.” The Norton Book

of Light Verse. Ed. Russell Baker. New York: Norton,

1986. 52-53.[Back to top]

ARTICLES IN NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS

Citation entries for newspapers and periodicals generally list three main sections of information about your source:

author name: last name first;

full title of the work: newspaper and periodical titles are underlined or italicized; article titles are put in quotation marks; and

publication information: this will vary according to the amount of information available–follow the examples.

Each of these sections is followed by a period and two spaces.

I. A Newspaper Article:

Fowler, Jennifer Jill. “Hilly Hundred Tour Called ’the best

ever.’” Bloomington Herald-Times 12 Oct. 1992: A1.

Wheeler, David L. “Artificial-Intelligence Researchers

Develop Electronic ’Tutors’ to Aid Learning Process.”

Chronicle of Higher Education 20 May 1987: 6-8.II. A Letter to the Editor:

Identify letters by adding the description, “Letter,” after the name of the author. Do not underline the work or put it in quotation marks.

III. An Article from a Magazine:

A. a magazine published weekly or every two weeks:

Prince, Dinah. “Marriage in the ’80s.” New York 1 June

1987: 30-38.Note that this entry gives the full date. Do not include volume and issue numbers.

B. a magazine published every month or two months:

Frazer, Lance. “Yours, Mine, or Ours: Who Owns the Moon?”

Space World Nov. 1986: 24-26.This entry states only the month. Again, you should not include issue or volume numbers in your citation.

Abbreviate the names of months so that they take up three spaces plus a period, e.g., Aug. The following months may be spelled out: May, June, and July.

IV. An Article in a Scholarly Journal:

A. a journal that pages each issue separately:

Barthelme, Frederick. “Architecture.” Kansas Quarterly

13.3 (1981): 77-80.Note that this entry provides the volume number (13) and issue number (3) separated by a period and followed by the year.

B. a journal with continuous pagination: (i.e., the numbers in one issue begin where the preceding issue left off):

Brock, Dan W. “The Value of Prolonging Human Life.”

Philosophical Studies 50 (1986): 401-26.Note that this entry supplies the volume number (50) before the year.

V. An Anonymous Article:

If no author is given for an article, begin with the title and alphabetize the title.

“Drunkproofing Automobiles.” Time 6 Apr. 1987: 37.VI. An Article With a Title That Contains a Quotation or a Title Within Quotation Marks:

Carrier, Warren. “Deconstructing Keats’s ’Ode on a Grecian

Urn.’” Critical Thought 28 (1992): 35-58.

The first line should be left aligned, each subsequent line of a citation should be indented five spaces.