Cumulative Annotated Bibliography

Introduction to the Cumulative Annotated Bibliography 

Winter/Spring 2025 Graduating and PDS Students

At the end of their MFA program, graduating students are asked to combine the short annotated bibliographies from their four (or five) semesters into one cumulative annotated bibliography. This final version is essentially the accumulation of all the short annotated bibliographies that students have submitted to their faculty mentors each semester. It includes all material read during the project periods. The cumulative annotated bibliography must include a minimum of 30 book/play/screenplay titles for regular program and genre jump students, and a minimum of 40 book/play/screenplay titles for dual concentration students.

The cumulative annotated bibliography serves as a comprehensive listing, with annotations, for anyone who wants to see what works a student read and reflected upon in the program. It will be included as part of the full transcript and, therefore, may potentially be of interest to future employers.

Students must include plans for the cumulative annotated bibliography in their Project Period Contract. Students send their papers to the format review team for formatting approval. The paper must be approved by the last day of the project period. Once the paper has received approval from the format reviewer, the paper will be archived by the MFA Program Office.

Papers that are sent to the format review team, MFAFormatreview@antioch.edu, after mentor approval (do not send this to the MFApaperwork account):

• Cumulative annotated bibliography

Students Entering a PDS in Summer/Fall 2025

If you're starting a Professional Development Semester (PDS) next semester, you must still have the required minimum pages of your final manuscript completed this semester, even if it's just a draft. Your current mentor will check the content of your paper as well as the minimum page number. Cumulative annotated bibliographies must meet the minimum number of annotations (30 minimum) and they must be in alphabetical order. Your current mentor will confirm that both requirements have been met before you move on to the PDS. Continuing PDS students will complete the formatting review of their final manuscript and cumulative annotated bibliographies during the PDS. Both manuscript and CAB must be completed and approved in order for your MFA degree to be processed. 

Review the resources below before sending work to your mentor and/or format review team.

Before you submit:

• Read through the guidelines.

• Download the cumulative annotated bibliography template and copy/paste your work or type directly into the Microsoft Word document. See the section below "How to Download Templates" for more details.

• Once your paper is complete, check your work by running through the checklist.

• Once you have completed the checklist, email your paper to MFAFormatreview@antioch.edu. 

Template

The cumulative annotated bibliography template is formatted correctly and include some useful MLA and MFA formatting notes throughout the body. You will need to download the template and copy/paste your work or type directly into the Microsoft Word document. DO NOT use Google Docs to work on your papers as this will distort the correct page format in the template. You MUST DOWNLOAD the document in order to access the correct page format.