An annotated bibliography provides an overview of sources that you have considered for your research project. Instructors sometimes ask students to create an annotated bibliography as a separate assignment to demonstrate that each student has done some preparatory research and has considered the usefulness of the sources he or she has found. But researchers frequently create annotated bibliographies for their own use, to keep a record of sources and their thoughts about them, especially when their research occurs over a lengthy period of time. Researchers sometimes also publish annotated bibliographies to provide others with a useful tool for beginning a research project of their own.
What an annotated bibliography includes depends on the researcher’s writing situation. If the annotated bibliography is intended for publication, the emphasis is on the source’s main claims and major supporting evidence. If the annotated bibliography is for the researcher’s use (or if it is for a class assignment), the annotation may also include information about how the source could be used in the research project.
Most annotated bibliographies created for publication or a class assignment also include an introduction that explains the subject, purpose, and scope of the annotated references and may describe how and why the author selected those sources. For instance, an annotated bibliography featuring works about computer animation might have the following introduction:
Early animations of virtual people in computer games tended to be oblivious to their surroundings, reacting only when hit by moving objects, and then in ways that were not always appropriate—that is, a small object might generate a large effect. In the past few years, however, computer animators have turned their attention to designing virtual people who react appropriately to events around them. The sources below represent the last two years’ worth of publications on the subject from the IEEE Xplore database.
To annotate your working bibliography, answer these three questions about each source:
Here are two example annotations:
| MLA Style | APA Style |
|---|---|
| Drennan, Tammy. “Freedom of Education in Hard Times.” Alliance for the Separation of School and State. Schoolandstate.org, 26 Mar. 2010. Web. 9 May 2012. | Castelvecchi, D. (2008, August 30). Carbon tubes leave nano behind. Science News, 174(5), 9-9. Retrieved from http://www.sciencenews.org |
| This Web page discusses the benefits of brainstorming ideas and tapping the community as options for overcoming economic hardships faced by home-schoolers. I have concerns about the reliability of this source, since it does not identify its members or funding sources. (It seems to be a one-woman show, with all the documents on the site written by Tammy Drennan.) But it’s interesting because it is written by a home schooling parent herself. I might be able to use this as evidence of the limitations of home schooling—a lack of resources such as lab equipment and subject-matter experts. | This news article, which describes a new, flexible lightweight material 30 times stronger than Kevlar and possibly useful for better bulletproof vests, provides evidence of yet another upcoming technology that might be useful to law enforcement. I can focus on the ways in which lighter, stronger bulletproof materials might change SWAT tactics—for instance, enabling officers to carry more gear, protect police vehicles, or to blend into crowds better. |