How to write an annotated bibliography: format and examples

Annotated bibliographynoun

A list of sources, each cited in full and followed by a short paragraph, the annotation, that describes the source and usually judges how good and how useful it is.

Cornell University Library's guide puts the length of a typical annotation at about 150 words. Its job is to tell the reader how relevant, accurate and good each source is. A bare bibliography only tells you that a source exists. The annotation tells you whether it is worth your time.

It is easy to confuse an annotation with an abstract, as Arpita did. As Cornell's guide explains, an abstract is purely descriptive, and the author writes it to present their own work. An annotation is descriptive and critical: it can comment on the author's point of view, their authority and how clearly the work is written. Only you can write that part.

An annotated bibliography is also not a literature review. The bibliography deals with one source at a time, in a list. A review weaves the same sources into one argument, organised by themes, as our guide on what a literature review is explains. Many students write the annotated bibliography first, and the review later grows out of it.

Annotations do one or more of three jobs. The Purdue Online Writing Lab names them as summarise, assess and reflect, and says an annotation may do one, some or all of them.

The University of North Carolina Writing Center splits the descriptive kind further. An informative annotation reads like a short summary of the source's argument. An indicative one only says which questions and issues the work covers, without giving its conclusions. The handout adds that most annotated bibliographies combine summary and evaluation.

Dr. Mukherjee wanted all three in every entry: what the source says, how strong it is, and what it does for Arpita's study.

A good annotated bibliography starts with good choices. Cornell's guide begins with research, not writing: find and record the books, articles and documents that may help, look through each one briefly, and then keep the ones that give a range of perspectives on your topic.

Twenty sources that all say the same thing teach your reader very little. Arpita's first list was nearly all newspaper reports, so she rebuilt it to include:

• a book based on long fieldwork with domestic workers in Kolkata
• journal articles on women's paid work in Indian cities
• studies on daily commuting by suburban train
• government and labour reports on informal work
• one or two sources she disagreed with, so she could say why

Then read each source well enough to judge it. You cannot evaluate a paper from its abstract alone. For a journal article, read the introduction, the methods, the main results and the limitations; our guide on how to read a research paper shows a quick and careful way to do it. For a book, read the introduction, the conclusion and the chapters closest to your question.

Write each annotation straight after reading the source, while it is fresh. Most follow the same order.

1. Cite it in the required style.The citation comes first, exactly as it would appear in your reference list, in the style your department uses.
2. Say what the source is about.In one or two sentences, give its main argument or question and its scope. Cornell calls this the central theme and scope.
3. Say how it was done.Name the kind of evidence: a survey of how many people, interviews, an experiment, archival work, a review of other studies.
4. Judge it.Comment on the author's authority or background, the intended audience, the strength of the evidence and any limits. Compare it with another source on your list if that helps.
5. Connect it to your work.Explain in a sentence how the source helps your project, or where it falls short for your question.

Write in your own words. The MLA Style Center advises that annotations should not rehash minor details, cite evidence, quote the author or recount the steps of an argument. If you keep one phrase from the source, put it in quotation marks with the page number. Restating a source fairly in your own words is a skill worth practising, because it is also what keeps you clear of plagiarism.

How long should each annotation be? Cornell's guide gives about 150 words, and many university guides suggest 100 to 200. Purdue notes that annotations can run from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages, depending on their purpose. The number of sources and the word limit are set by your instructor, so follow the brief.

Each entry has the same shape in every style: the full citation, then the annotation directly below it. What changes from style to style is the spacing, the indent and the order. If you are unsure how APA and MLA citations themselves differ, start with our guide to citation styles.

For APA, library guides also advise the usual paper settings, such as one inch margins and page numbers in the top right corner, and note that your instructor's rules on length and focus override the general guidance.

Some departments in Indian universities ask for their own format, especially in coursework, so check the handout before you follow any style guide to the letter. Dr. Mukherjee's instructions were short: APA 7th edition, alphabetical, double spaced, 120 to 180 words an annotation.

Here is one of Arpita's entries. The source is a real book: Domestic Days, by Samita Sen and Nilanjana Sengupta, published by Oxford University Press in 2016. Her first draft repeated the publisher's description. This is the rewritten entry, in APA style.

Sen, S., & Sengupta, N. (2016). Domestic days: Women, work, and politics in contemporary Kolkata. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199461165.001.0001

Read it again and you can see each part from the steps above. The first two sentences describe the book and its method. The third judges its strength and its limit. The last two connect it to Arpita's own question, and they also show the gap her other sources must fill.

Notice what is missing too: no long quotation, no list of every chapter, no praise without a reason.

Most weak annotated bibliographies fail in the same few ways.

A reference manager such as Zotero or Mendeley can store your sources, format the citations and keep your notes next to each one. Check its citations against the style guide anyway.

• Every source on the list is one you have actually read.
• Each citation is complete and in the required style.
• Each annotation describes, judges and connects, as the brief asks.
• The annotations are in your own words, within the word limit.
• The entries are in the right order, with the right spacing and indents.

Your annotations are also the start of something bigger. When you move on to the review, the notes from your bibliography can go straight into a literature review matrix, where you compare the sources side by side.

Arpita rewrote all twenty entries over the next week. Dr. Mukherjee read them, underlined two lines where Arpita had disagreed with an author and given a reason, and wrote in the margin: "Now I can see your thesis taking shape."