Annotated Bibliographies

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) that have been used for researching a topic. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (author, title, publisher, etc.).

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources that gives the publication information and a short description — or annotation — for each source.

• Each annotation is generally three to seven sentences long.
• In some bibliographies, the annotation merely describes the content and scope of the source;
• In others, the annotation also evaluates the source’s reliability, currency, and relevance to a researcher’s purpose.

An annotated bibliography shows that the author has understood the sources used during their research on a topic and gives the reader enough information to decide whether they should read the specific work.

OWL - Purdue Online Writing Lab provides examples of Annotated Bibliographies for APA, MLA, and Chicago Styles.