Writing the annotated bibliography

The annotated bibliography gives your readers a glimpse of the work a professional researcher would do. Every published article provides statements about prior research on the topic at hand. A teacher may require that you write an annotated bibliography as the first step of a big research assignment.

An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of books or articles for which you have added explanatory or critical notes. The annotation is usually written in a paragraph of about 150 words, in which you briefly describe the book or article cited, then add an evaluation and a critical comment of your own.

An annotated bibliography starts with the bibliographic details of a source (the citation) followed by a brief annotation. As with a normal reference list or bibliography, an annotated bibliography is usually arranged alphabetically according to the author’s last name.

An annotated bibliography is a bibliography that gives a summary of each of the entries. The purpose of annotations is to provide the reader with a summary and an evaluation of each source. Each summary should be a concise exposition of the source's central idea(s) and give the reader a general idea of the source's content. Contents.