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How to Write an Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliographies

This guide answers some common questions about annotated bibliographies and provides both general guidelines on what to include in an annotation, as well as examples. You should always refer to your specific assignment, or ask your professor for guidance on the overall length, organization, and any other requirements.

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

A relatively short list of articles, books and other works on a topic. This list includes both citation information and a paragraph (the annotation) describing and evaluating the source. Annotations are typically 100 to 200 words in length, depending on the intended purpose of the bibliography. The bibliography itself may be in alphabetical order (as in a regular bibliography or list of works cited) or may organize items into categories such as subject, type of resource (i.e. books, articles), or time period.

What are Annotated Bibliographies used for?

They are created for several reasons. Some researchers create them to help keep track of sources of interest and collect their thoughts about the item, often as a precursor to writing an article or book. Annotated bibliographies are often shared or published as a way of gathering the most relevant sources about an issue in one place and sharing the information with others. Readers use the annotations to help them decide whether or not a source is worth pursuing.

What's the Difference between an Annotation and an Abstract?

An abstract is provided for you with an article and is intended to provide readers with a short summary of the purpose of an article. Abstracts are often written by the author.

Annotations not only summarize the main points of a work but also evaluate it and indicate how that work fits into the scholarly conversation on a topic. Annotations are never written by the author and should be unbiased.

Keep in mind that annotations are supposed to highlight the most important points of a resource. If you’re struggling to keep your annotations short, make sure you’re not getting too specific - if people reading your bibliography want to know more, they can find the work and read it directly. Also, always remember that annotations should be as unbiased as possible – keep your personal opinions out!

Although they are short, annotations should be extremely informative and include most, if not all, of the following categories:

  1. Author Information and Purpose
    Include a brief mention of the author’s expertise in the area or their credentials. Also consider why the author conducted the research or wrote the article and make note of any particular message or intent of the author.
  2. Methods Used or Source of the Information
    Mention in broad terms the methods the author used to obtain the information in the article. This is particularly important with scientific sources but also applies to works in the humanities and arts. (For example, the information may be based on personal opinion, experience, interviews, library or archival research, questionnaires, laboratory experiments, empirical observation, or standardized personality tests.)
  3. Author’s Conclusion
    State the main conclusion drawn by the author and make special note of conclusions that are implied rather than specifically stated.
  4. Justification for the Conclusion
    Address whether or not the author’s conclusion is supported by his or her data and make special note of shaky reasoning or biases present in the conclusion drawn.
  5. Relationship to Other Works
    Briefly state how this work relates to other works in the bibliography or the field as a whole. Does the author and/or the information coincide with the other sources? Does it conflict with the standard views? Does the author specifically address other studies or works?

In addition to these 5 main points, annotations may also include the following components, as needed:

  1. Author Bias
    If you discern any biases of the author, mention these in the annotation and explain how they impact the information in the article (for example, the methods used or conclusion drawn) and how it relates to other sources in the bibliography.
  2. Time Frame
    You may want to address the publication date and how this impacts the information in the source if you’re citing an older work or a particularly recent work. Consider how the time it was written impacts the value of the information.
  3. Audience Information
    If the author is addressing an unusual audience or the intended audience impacted the nature of the information used in the article, you should mention the intended audience in your annotation. You may also want to include this if the author’s style makes the work easier or harder for potential readers to understand. (For example, if you’re writing an annotated bibliography evaluating sources for high school students, you should make note of works that are particularly dense reads.)
  4. Potential Use
    Particularly when writing an annotated bibliography for an assignment, you may wish to include a brief statement of how you intend to use the information in this source in your final paper or project.

Example Annotations

Please see the Purdue Owl for example annotations

Subjects: *Using the Library

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