An annotated bibliography is a very useful tool, both for students and for teachers. The word “annotated” should be familiar to you. When you “annotate” something you are adding notes to it to give an explanation or comment. An annotated bibliography, therefore, is a regular MLA formatted bibliography with an explanation for each of the entries you create.
Writing an annotated bibliography helps you evaluate the usefulness of the sources you read or selected and it helps your teacher(s) see whether you are keeping up with your research, selecting useful sources and thinking critically about what you’re reading.
It is always a good idea to examine the origin, purpose, value and limitations of the sources that you select. That’s why we want you to consider these aspects of each of your sources when you complete your annotated bibliography for any research assignment at IST. Here are some questions to consider when you look at these four aspects of each resource:
- Origin: Who wrote it? When was it written? Who published it?
- Purpose: Why was it written? For whom? Was it written to educate? Was it written to inform? Was it written to persuade? What does the form of the document or article tell you about its purpose?
- Value: Is it a primary or secondary source? Does it give an interesting or unique perspective? Is it background information? How can you use the information in this source to answer your research question?
- Limitation(s): Does it list its sources? Do you have to cross-reference information? Does it give only a very general overview? Do you question any of the contents?
OR
- Currency: When was the info published or posted? Has it been updated? Do you need the most current info for your topic? Does the information directly relate to your topic?
- Relevance: Does it help you answer questions? Have you looked at other sources to find the best one?
- Authority: Who is the author or publisher? Are they qualified to write about the topic? If it’s a website, does the URL say anything about the source? .com .gov .edu .org?
- Accuracy: Is the info supported by evidence? Can you verify the info with another source? Is the author or publisher biased or unbiased?
- Purpose: What is the purpose of the info? To teach, sell, persuade, or entertain? Is the info a fact or an opinion? Again, is the author or publisher biased or unbiased?
Okay, now you know what you have to do, but how do you do it?
Creating an annotated bibliography is very straightforward. With an EasyBib account, you can create a project for your research assignment and easily create your bibliography along with annotations. EasyBib saves your work and when you’re finished, you can export a (mostly) properly formatted and annotated MLA Works Cited in MSWord. EasyBib is not perfect, however. You always need to proofread and double-check to be sure that the formatting is correct. NoodleTools offers something similar. You have to do a bit more of the work but there are likely to be fewer errors.
Sample Annotations
Points to remember:
- Annotations should discuss the most relevant aspects of the source and how it will form part of a longer piece of writing
- Works cited pages are generally double spaced.
- Entries should be arranged in alphabetical order
- Each entry should be followed by a hanging indent
- There are no blank lines between entries.