What Is an Annotated Bibliography?
- A list of citations to books, articles and other resources
- Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph (known as "the annotation")
Why Should I Write an Annotated Bibliography?
- The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
- Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. Simply collecting sources can be useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you read the source more carefully and critically.
- By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you’ll start to see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and you’ll then be able to develop your own point of view.
How Do I Write an Annotated Bibliography?
As you're reading, ask yourself:
- What is the author saying?
- What point of view or background is the author coming from that might influence what is being said? Thus, what biases do you discern?
- Is the evidence presented fairly? Is there enough evidence? Does the evidence support the author’s case? Is there counter-evidence that needs to be considered before you automatically buy into the author’s argument?
- How does this author’s belief compare or contrast with other things you’ve been reading?
