Annotated Bibliographies
Your final research project will alway require you to provide a list of your resources, telling your reader where your information has come from. Sometimes you will also need to discuss your resources to some degree. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present the Annotated Bibliography!
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References, Works-Cited, Bibliography...What's the Difference Here?
After the main body of the research paper, the writer must present their resources from which the evidence, supportive details, and other necessary information came. The Citation Builder Page will help you create the appropriate citation, but your page of references will have formatting differences that you will need to follow.
APA
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Page Heading: References
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Alphabetical
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Double-Spaced
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1/2 Inch Hanging Indent
Chicago
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Page Heading: Bibliography
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Alphabetical
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Single-Spaced
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1/2 Inch Hanging Indent
MLA
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Page Heading: Works Cited
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Alphabetical
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Double-Spaced
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1/2 Inch Hanging Indent
Annotated Bibliographies
On occasion, your teacher may ask you to provide an annotated bibliography. Just like a regular bibliography, it is a list of citations; however, it also includes additional information about each of the listed resources. You may need to provide a concise summary (a brief description of the information provided by the resource), a concise evaluation (your objective opinion of the resource's quality), or perhaps both. You'll notice I repeated the word "concice." That is because your annotation should only be 1 to 3 paragraphs, so be brief and to the point. Your teacher will let you know what kind of annotation to include and how many paragraphs are required.
Below is an example of an sample MLA evaluative annotation. Notice the hanging indent and the double spacing of the lines. An APA annotation would look basically the same, but the citation would be in APA format.
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London, Herbert. “Five Myths of the Television Age.” Television Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 1, Mar.
1982, pp. 69-81.
Herbert London, the Dean of Journalism at New York University and author of several books and articles, explains how television contradicts five commonly believed ideas. He uses specific examples of events seen on television, such as the assassination of John Kennedy, to illustrate his points. His examples have been selected to contradict such truisms as: “seeing is believing”; “a picture is worth a thousand words”; and “satisfaction is its own reward.” London uses logical arguments to support his ideas which are his personal opinion. He does not refer to any previous works on the topic. London’s style and vocabulary would make the article of interest to any reader. The article clearly illustrates London’s points, but does not explore their implications leaving the reader with many unanswered questions.
Next is an example of an same annotation, but done in the Chicago Style. Notice the hanging indent is in place but lines are single spaced.
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London, Herbert. “Five Myths of the Television Age.” Television Quarterly 10, no. 1 (March 1982):
69.81.
Herbert London, the Dean of Journalism at New York University and author of several books and articles, explains how television contradicts five commonly believed ideas. He uses specific examples of events seen on television, such as the assassination of John Kennedy, to illustrate his points. His examples have been selected to contradict such truisms as: “seeing is believing”; “a picture is worth a thousand words”; and “satisfaction is its own reward.” London uses logical arguments to support his ideas which are his personal opinion. He does not refer to any previous works on the topic. London’s style and vocabulary would make the article of interest to any reader. The article clearly illustrates London’s points, but does not explore their implications leaving the reader with many unanswered questions.
The links below are templates for building your own annotated bibliography.
Helpful Links
*The sample resources and template come the Columbia College in Vancouver, Canada.​
