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• Terms
• Purpose
• The Process
• What to Include
• Examples
• Select Resources

Terms

Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography includes a list of citations to books, articles, and documents (primary and secondary). Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph (the annotation), which provides a review of the literature on a particular subject. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited

Annotation

An "abstract" is just descriptive; an "annotation" is descriptive and critical. Many periodical indexes include a summary with most citations. This summary is labeled "annotation", but it is not critical.

Bibliography

A bibliography is a full reference list to all the sources which an author has used or referred to in preparing a particular piece of work. Under the Harvard system the bibliography should be arranged alphabetically by author. A bibliography is judged by its content and form: it is also the basis upon which a work is substantiated. Bibliographies used to be lists of written resources, but today they may also include interviews, video and audio tapes, computer resources, speeches and more.

A bibliographic work usually includes information such as the following:

• Author
• Title
• Place of publication or interview
• Name of publisher, resource, repository
• Date

Abstracts (as contrasted with Annotated Bibliographies)

Abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles or in periodical indexes. Annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author's point of view, clarity and appropriateness of expression, and authority.

Purpose

The purpose of an annotation is to describe, critically, the cited material.  It is a brief descriptive note that should provide sufficient information about the book or article so that  the reader can readily determine if the sources is credible, accurate, and relevant (with reference to the specific subject), and weather it warrants consideration.  Annotations help to clarify the book or article, and they will often provide evaluative information as well.

Creating an annotated bibliography calls for the application of a variety of intellectual skills: concise exposition, succinct analysis, and informed library research.

It begins with a citation of the work. It is important to use a consistent, standard format (MLA, Turabian, etc.) as you would for a "Reference" page.

An Annotated Bibliography will have a similar format to a Bibliography page, but with three differences:

1. it includes works (references) useful to the reader, but that might not have used (cited) in the writing of a particular paper or article;
2. the references may be organized into categories, which are arranged to guide the user;
3. it includes a commentary (critical annotation) to the references, telling the reader of particular virtues (or, as necessary, the shortcomings) of the resource, at times in the context of other references.

Annotations are concise, economical summaries, written in sentence fragments (if necessary); if related, fragments are connected with semicolons. The commentary begins on a new line, indented slightly from the preceding line.

Annotations can be any length, but they are typically about 100 to 150 words.

There are at least three types of annotations:

1. Informative: Written in the tone of the book or article, an informative annotation presents the original material in a shorter form.
2. Descriptive: Provides a description of the text, avoiding the addition of any evaluative commentary on its quality. 
3. Evaluative: In addition to the information included in the previous annotation types, includes an evaluate judgment of the material as well. 

For some works, it may be important to indicate a location (library, archive, Internet site), or means of obtaining the citation; some documents - especially primary sources in archives - may be difficult to find.

The Process

Critically evaluate each work to determine if it is suitable for your topic. For guidelines on this process, see:

Ormondroyd, Joan. Critically Analyzing Information Sources. Updated, edited and Webified by Michael Engle, and Tony Cosgrave, Reference Services Division, Olin Kroch Uris Libraries, Cornell University Library.

Bibliographic entries (citations) may be arranged just as in any other bibliography. This is usually arranged alphabetically by the first word, which is typically the author's last name. Some Annotated Bibliographies are divided in to sections, by topic.

Cite the book, article, or report using an appropriate style: Turabian, MLA, APA, Chicago, CBE, others. Consistent with the style you are employing, note the edition or if a publication has been reprinted.

The annotation may then immediately follow the bibliographic information or may skip one or two lines depending on the style manual that is used. Remember to be brief and include only directly significant information and write in an efficient manner.

Preparation Checklist

• First, define and refine the scope of the subject.
• Determine the methodology, style and format, with reference to reading and other resources.
• Examine and review the actual text and illustrations of each work. Do not rely on the opinion (through book reviews, third-party abstracts, evaluations in other publications, etc.)
• Do not include irrelevant books, which may only have a few pages of information found elsewhere.
• Selectively include a major publication, which does not include pertinent information, only to advise a reader that the source is irrelevant.
• Be considerate of the readers, knowing they want a range of the most pertinent works available.
• Consider your own biases, and adjust your research and writing accordingly.
• Choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives and ideas on your topic.

What to Include

Author

• Note the author. 
• Describe is his/her occupation, position, education, experience, etc.
• Evaluate the authority or background of the author,

Purpose

• Assess the purpose for writing the article or doing the research. 

Intended Audience (of work, not the Annotated Bibliography)

• Determine the intended audience.
• Is it intended for the general public, for scholars, policy makers, teachers, professionals, practitioners, etc.? 
• Is this reflected in the author's style of writing or presentation? 

Author Bias

• Determine if the author has a bias or makes assumptions upon which the rationale of the article or research rests.
• What are the biases? 

Information Source

• Determine the method of obtaining the data, or conducting the research employed by the author.
• Determine if the article (or book) based on personal opinion or experience, interviews, library research, questionnaires, laboratory experiments, standardized personality tests, etc.
• Evaluate reliability.
• Evaluate the methods (research) used.
• Evaluate the resources cited.

Author Conclusion

• Describe the author's conclusion.
• Does the author satisfactorily justify the conclusion from the research or experience? Why or why not? 

Significant Attachments

• Are there significant attachments or appendices such as charts, maps, bibliographies, photographs, documents, tests or questionnaires? If not, should there be?

Relate to Subject and Other Works

• Explain how this work illuminates the bibliography topic. How is it useful?
• Compare or contrast this work with another (or others) cited.
• Is the work, or its date or view, out-of-date, yet a valid historical reference?
• Describe "your" reaction to the item. Use technical writing format: not "I" or "my".

Examples

Examples of What Your Bibliography Should Look Like:

Graybosch, Anthony, Gregory M. Scott and Stephen Garrison. The Philosophy Student Writer's Manual. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Designed to serve as either as a writing guide or as a primary textbook for teaching philosophy through writing, the Manual is an excellent resource for students new to philosophy. Like other books in this area, the Manual contains sections on grammar, writing strategies, introductory informal logic and the different types of writing encountered in various areas of philosophy. Of particular note, however, is the section on conductng research in philosophy. The research strategies and sources of information described there are very much up-to-date, including not only directories and periodical indexes, but also research institutes, interest groups and Internet resources.

Martinich, A. P. Philosophical Writing: An Introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989.

An excellent introduction to the peculiarities of philosophical writing, ranging in difficulty from elementary to moderately advanced. Martinich maintains that half of good philosophy is good grammar and the other half is good thinking and his book is geared toward helping students to write clear, precise and concise philsophical prose. The book includes a crash course on basic concepts in logic, a catalogue of the types of arguments typically found in philosophical writing, and an examination of the structure of a philosophcial essay. Of particular interest is Martinich's discussion of the concepts of author and audience as they apply to academic writing.

Rosenberg, Jay F. The Practice of Philosophy: A Handbook for Beginners, 2nd Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984.

Intended as a general-purpose introduction to the practice of philosophy in the "analytic" style, Rosenberg's book includes quite a lot on philosophical writing. In effect, Rosenberg divides the class of philosophical essays into four main types: critical, adjudicatory, problem-solving and essays expositing an original thesis. A variety of critical and argumentative strategies are provided in connection with the first three types.

Examples of What Your Bibliography Should Not Look Like:

Marieb, Elaine N. (1992).Human Anatomy and PhysiologyRedwood City, CA: The Benjamin/ Cummings Co.

• I use this book to get the basic information about arthritis, it was very informative.

Keefe FJ., (1996) Pain in Arthritis and musculoskeletal disorders. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 24,279-290

• I got all the facts about exercising with arthritis and the different types of exercise.

Selected Resources

Marshall, Philip. RWU Preservation Research Fall 2002, Annotated Bibliography.  Retrieved 28 August 2003 from web site of Philip Cryan Marshall, Professor of Historic Preservation, Roger Williams University.

Michael Engle, Amy Blumenthal, and Tony Cosgrave (Revised 3 March 1998). How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography. Reference Services, IRIS, Cornell University Library.

Ormondroyd, Joan. Critically Analyzing Information Sources. Updated, edited and Webified by Michael Engle, and Tony Cosgrave. Retrieved 29 October 2002 from Reference Services Division, Olin Kroch Uris Libraries, Cornell University Library.