Annotated Bibilographies

                         

A bibliography is a list of the resources consulted in the research process - the sources can be journal articles, websites, books, and/or people interviewed.   A citation for each source includes the author, title, and publication details of the source.  Annotated bibliographies include annotations providing additional description and/or evaluation for each source.

The purpose of the annotation is to help the reader of the biblography evaluate the relevance of each source in relation to the focus of the research or the research topic.

Abstracts briefly describe the main points presented in a research source.   Annotations can be simple descriptions and may include evaluative comments.   Annotations should be concise - depending on the assignment, they may include:

• a brief description of the resource
• the intended audience for the resource (researchers, students, parents, etc.), 
• statement of relevance of the resource to the research topic
• authority of the author/s (background, education, credibility)
• conclusions of the author/s
• your conclusions as a researcher, about the resource

These are two examples of annotations using the APA Style, based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition.

Book Citation with Descriptive Annotation (APA):

Hessler, P. (2006). Oracle bones : a journey between China's past and present. New York :

This book explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China through the lives of people that the author met as a teacher and traveler, and linking the ancient and the present.

Journal Article Citation with Evaluative Annotation (APA):

China has the world's largest number of cigarette smokers and is viewed as a lucrative market for multinational tobacco companies.  Through focus groups and interviews with urban and rural Chinese people, the multinational research team identified eight myths and misconceptions about smoking. The myths and misconceptions involve smoking as an individual freedom, smoking as an important social tradition, tobacco sales as a significant economic factor, smoking as a legal practice, higher quality cigarettes seen as less harmful, and the perceived harmlessness of second-hand smoke. The authors conclude that to address the social norms, economic misconceptions, and public health consequences associated with the persistence of smoking in China, the central government must take a strong leadership role, but given the apathy they so fully document here, they are unclear on where the impetus for this campaign will come from or the most effective forms it might take.

Noodlebib Use this software to format your bibliography in MLA, APA,
or Chicago/Turabian style
         
     
See the IC Library's  Noodlebib Users Guide

Zotero Citation Software Tutorials  Zotero is a powerful, easy-to-use research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources and then share the results of your research.

Mendeley is a research management tool that allows you to organize and annotate PDFs, insert bibliographies and citations into your research paper and collaborate in groups. Mendeley offers both desktop and web access, so you'll need to download the software to get started. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Mendeley is free with an option to upgrade for more storage space. 

The IC Library has copies of style manuals that provide examples and instructions for creating and formatting an annotated bibliography. Course instructors will indicate the preferred style on the course syllabus. Regardless of the style used, it is important to be consistent throughout the bibliography. See also our Writing and Citing page.