Annotated Bibliographies

• A bibliography lists the books, articles, blog posts, and websites you've cited in your paper.
• An abstract or summary describes a book or paper.
• An annotation to an article analyzes, critiques and places the work in the larger context of scholarly communication.
• An annotated bibliography evaluates the best, most interesting, most appropriate or most cutting edge works on a particular topic.

• For yourself: Helps you analyze the books and papers you have found on your topic and prepare for your own paper or literature review.
• For your professor: Lets your professor see the direction of your research and your progress.
• For others: Guides other students and researchers to the best books, articles, blogs, websites and other resources on your topic. 

Do:

• Summarize the central theme/scope of the article
• Explain how this resource ties into the purpose or idea of your project
• Do include information on the author

Don't:

• Don't write a "thumbs-up/thumbs-down" review
• Don't just skim the article, read it carefully before writing
• Don't plagiarize
• Don't copy and paste the abstract

Descriptive annotated bibliographies only require you to summarize the information, letting the reader know the most interesting or important aspects of the book.

• Write out the citation, following the appropriate style guide (APA, MLA, or Chicago, etc.)
• Summarize the information.

Start with a short summary of the article: 1 or 2 sentences.

Then give information that places the resource within the scholarly context or evaluates its usefulness or quality.

Here are some questions to ask yourself and to answer in your annotation. You only need to address 1 or 2 for each annotation. Choose one that applies to the source you're looking at.

• Who is the author? What are his/her qualifications?
• How does this source address similar questions in other sources?
• Who is the intended audience? Is it you?
• Is this a seminal article that everyone who writes on this topic reads? Has it been cited many times in the literature?
• Does the evidence support the author's conclusions?
• What is missing in the author's argument or research?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the source?
• How do you intend to use this source in your paper?