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Annotated Bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is a bibliography that includes a brief summary and/or critique of your sources of information.

What Is a Bibliography?

A bibliography is an old word for a list of sources (articles, books, and other material) used by authors in their works. Usually you will find bibliographies at the end of an article, book, or web site.

Instead of a bibliography, you might see a section of sources titled:

  • Works Cited
  • References
  • Works Consulted

What Is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a bibliography in which each citation is accompanied by a brief note – an annotation. The annotation summarizes and/or evaluates the source being cited. It provides an overview of the research that has been done on a topic. This guide will show you how to write an annotated bibliography.

Explore the following tabs on the left side of the page – Helpful Hints on writing an annotated bibliography and Examples of Annotations.

What Is a Citation?

The information that identifies an article, book, or other material is a Citation.

A citation for an article typically includes author, title of article, title of periodical, date, volume, issue, and page numbers.

A citation for a book typically includes author, title, place of publication, publisher, and date. Commonly used styles of citation are American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), and Chicago Citation Style.

Detailed information on different citation styles can be found at the following link:

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