ENGL 400: Capstone: Annotated Bibliography: What and Why?

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, Web sites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called "References" or "Works Cited" depending on the style format you are using. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.).

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following.

• Summarize: Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is.

  For more help, see our handout on paraphrasing sources.

• Assess: After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source?

  For more help, see our handouts on evaluating resources.

• Reflect: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

Your annotated bibliography may include some of these, all of these, or even others. If you're doing this for a class, you should get specific guidelines from your instructor.
 

Common elements often found in Annotated Bibliography entries

• Cite the source using MLA style.

• Describe the main ideas, arguments, themes, theses, or methodology, and identify the intended audience.

• Explain the author’s expertise, point of view, and any bias he/she may have.

• Compare to other sources on the same topic that you have also cited to show similarities and differences.

• Explain why each source is useful for your research topic and how it relates to your topic.

• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each source.

• Identify the observations or conclusions of the author. 

• Note any common or seminal works mentioned or cited

• An annotated bibliography provides information about each source you have used
  One of the reasons behind citing sources and compiling a general bibliography is so that you can prove you have done some valid research to back up your argument and claims. Annotated bibliographies include additional details that provide an overview of the sources themselves.
• Each annotation provides essential details about a source
  Readers, researchers or instructors reading an annotated bibliography will get a snapshot of the important details that they need to know about each source. As a researcher, you have become an expert on your topic: you have the ability to explain the content of your sources, assess their usefulness, and share this information with others who may be less familiar with them.

An annotated bibliography may be assigned for for the following reasons

• To show that you can identify and describe the literature about a research problem;
• To demonstrate that you can conduct an effective and thorough evaluation of prior research;
• To develop skills in discerning the most relevant studies from those that only have superficial relevance to your topic;
• To gain an understanding of the ways in which debates about the research problem emerged among scholars
• To explore how different types of sources contribute to understanding the research problem;
• To be thoroughly engaged with individual sources in order to strengthen your analytical skills; and, in some cases,
• To share sources among your classmates so that, collectively, everyone in the class obtains a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

On a broader level, writing an annotated bibliography can lay the foundation for conducting a larger research project. It serves as a method to evaluate prior research and where your proposed study may fit within it. By critically analyzing and synthesizing the contents of a variety of sources, you can begin to evaluate what the key issues are in relation to the research problem and, by so doing, gain a more informed perspective about the deliberations taking place among scholars. As a result of this analysis, you are better prepared to develop your own arguments and contributions to the literature.

To learn about your topic:

Writing an annotated bibliography is excellent preparation for a research project. Just collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you're forced to read each source more carefully. You begin to read more critically instead of just collecting information.

At the professional level, annotated bibliographies allow you to see what has been done in the literature and where your own research or scholarship can fit.

To help you formulate a thesis: Every good research paper is an argument. The purpose of research is to state and support a thesis. So, a very important part of research is developing a thesis that is debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated bibliography can help you gain a good perspective on what is being said about your topic.

By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you'll start to see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and you'll then be able to develop your own point of view.

To help other researchers: Extensive and scholarly annotated bibliographies are sometimes published. They provide a comprehensive overview of everything important that has been and is being said about that topic. You may not ever get your annotated bibliography published, but as a researcher, you might want to look for one that has been published about your topic.

Tip: Annotations are original descriptions that you create after reading the document. You may find a short summary, often titled "abstract," at the beginning of journal articles. Do not copy the abstract as that would be plagiarism.