An annotated bibliography is a list of sources (books, articles, websites, etc.) with a short paragraph (or annotation) about each source. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to help the reader evaluate whether the cited source is relevant to your research topic.
For details on the number and type of sources you should include in your annotated bibliography, refer back to your assignment.
How to Create an Annotated Bibliography
Do you need to do an annotated bibliography for class? Not sure exactly what that means?
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations which each have a brief paragraph describing and evaluating the work cited. Professors may assign you an annotated bibliography to get you used to doing research in your subject area or expand your knowledge on a topic. Other times, an annotated bibliography is part of a larger assignment, such as a presentation or a research paper due later in the semester. In this case, the sources that you find for your annotated bibliography will be the same sources you use in the larger assignment.
Now that you know what an annotated bibliography is, let's talk about how to put one together. First, you will need to find the number and type of sources required. Check your assignment guidelines, or ask your professor. Types of resources you can find in the library are typically books, eBooks, articles such as newspaper, magazine, peer-reviewed, or reference entries, to name a few. If you have problems finding sources, check out our other tutorials such as OneSearch Basics, or ask a librarian.
You will then need to know what citation style to use, such as MLA or APA. This determines both how you put together your citations, as well as the overall format of your annotated bibliography. If your professor hasn't specified a citation style, pick one and stick with it for the entire assignment.
The next step is to put together citations for all the books, articles, and/or websites you are including in your bibliography. You can use the citation guides on the Library's Cite Your Sources page to put together your citations. If you are getting citations from a database or a citation generator, use these guides to double-check to make sure they are correct. Once your citations are ready, place them in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Use the first word of the title if there is no author.
Then add your annotations, which are typically 4-6 sentences long. Your annotation can summarize the work cited, critically evaluate the work, highlight special features that you think were unique or helpful, or describe how useful or relevant it is to your research topic. The annotation must always be in your own words, and not the abstract provided by the article. If your professor provides specific directions on what to include in your annotation, or how long it should be, follow those directions instead.
In general, your annotated bibliography should be double-spaced with a hanging indent. To create the hanging indent in Word, use the ruler at the top and drag it over to .5, then pull back the top piece to the margin line. According to MLA 9th edition, your annotations should start on the next line, and should be indented to the 1 inch margin line, while in APA 7th edition, your annotations begin on the next line, but stay on the .5 margin line. If your professor provides specific formatting requirements, you should follow those instead.
If you have any questions, please click "Ask a Librarian" from the Library's homepage.
Use the four questions below to help you create an annotation (write 1-2 full sentences per question). Avoid using first person (words like I, we, you, etc.).
Download and modify the file below to create your own COMP 100 annotated bibliography:
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