LS 300 Liberal Studies: 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.

Additional information on annotated bibliographies:

Examples:

BENEFITS?

• Centralizes your research into one document; you won't lose any of your sources
• If you've cited your sources correctly, you can copy/paste the citations in your bibliography to your research paper
• Allows you to start thinking about how your sources will fit together, in other words, how your resources talk with one another in your research paper

HOW TO CREATE AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?

1. Collect sources based on the cause/effect question you are answering
2. Review each item and choose the sources that offer the best variety of perspectives on your topic
3. Cite the 5 sources you have selected in MLA citation style
4. Write a 4-6 sentence summary paragraph (approximately 150 words) for each of the 5 sources listed

WHAT MIGHT BE INCLUDED IN EACH SUMMARY PARAGRAPH? 
A combination of the information suggested below might be included in your informative summary annotations.

• Main focus or scope of the work - source perspective
• Intended audience of the work
• Usefulness and relevance to your research topic - why it did or did not meet your expectations
• Unique and helpful aspects of the work
• Compare it to another source you are using
• Any biases in the work
• Background and credibility of the author
• Conclusions/observations reached by the author
• Your conclusions