What is an Annotated Bibliography?

FORMATTING

1. Your list should be titled “Annotated Bibliography.” Not "Bibliography," not "Works Cited". Put this title in the top center of your first page.

2. Divide your Annotated Bibliography into two sections, labeled "Primary Sources" and "Secondary Sources."

• In each section, entries should be alphabetized by the first word excluding “A,” “An,” and “The.”

3. Other suggested formatting instructions:

• Single-space each entry and skip one line between entries.

• All source citations are tabbed 1/2 inch (one tab) after the first line.

• Include full citations (not just URLs) so that the judges know what you found on a particular website.

How to write annotations

TWO COMPONENTS OF A GOOD ANNOTATION

1. How was the source used?

2. How did the source help you understand your topic?

So for a book, your annotation would look something like this:

Morris, Edmund. Theodore Rex. New York: Modern Library, 2001.

This biography of Theodore Roosevelt helped me understand the way in which Philippe Bunau Varilla was able to get President Roosevelt to recognize the revolutionary government of Panama. It also gave me details regarding the specific treaties signed between the two nations that gave the U.S. control of the canal zone.

Note that all lines after the first line are tabbed in one-half (1/2) inch.

An annotation normally should be no more than two or three sentences long. Really long annotations do not impress people. Get to the point! Please understand that it is NOT the purpose of an annotation to summarize the book but to assess its value to your research. The NHD Contest Rule Book states that the purpose of annotations "is to provide information about your research process, not to provide analysis to circumvent the word count." Do not recount what the source said in detail.