Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. For most new college students, annotated bibliographies are an unfamiliar assignment and are frequently confused with Works Cited page. In this folder, we'll examine what an annotated bibliography is and what it is not.

Annotated bibliography? What the heck is an annotated bibliography? If this is the first time hearing about this sort of assignment, you're not alone. Many college students have had no previous experience creating an annotated bibliography. So, if you feel like you missed out on an important skill in high school, never fear! This unit will catch you up to speed. Just remember, in this course, we'll be developing MLA formatted annotated bibliographies, but you may be asked to develop an APA formatted bibliography in one of your other classes. Don't hesitate to ask fro formatting help!

In this brief video, I'll walk you through crafting an annotated bibliography.

For those who prefer to read the slides and presentation transcript, click HERE for the original PowerPoint and notes.

I'm providing this template here in our folder on annotated bibliographies and attaching it to all your annotated bibliography assignments to provide guidance. Remember, this is a guide and you'll add your own information to the highlighted sections and delete my highlights. The questions in the annotation section are likewise, meant to guide you and should help you develop a paragraph long annotation, not a list of answers to those questions.