annotated biblography examples

annotated biblography examples

Annotated Bibliography: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Introduction to Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is simply a kind of reference list. It is a list, not in the form of a shopping list, but in the form of paragraphs. Each paragraph is a summary, an evaluation, and a reflection of each entry. The purpose of this kind of bibliography is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. It is critical, and therefore a small error margin is not acceptable. The reader can be the professor who might be grading your product and issuing marks solely on the quality of your reference. It could be a fellow student. The paragraph that you produce should be detailed enough so that your peer would understand the source without having to check the source that he has been tasked to find. For the retentive reader, the annotation would help him remember the contents of the article once he has read it because of the recap. As an individual reader, you could be reading your own work from years ago, and the annotation would be helpful to remind you of the content of the source. Last but not least, there is a high chance the information you are citing is for a project or a task that requires you to work in a group. If that is the case, the successful production of an annotated bibliography can save time as you would be able to reassign tasks in terms of obtaining source material and description. For instance, a person with knowledge of how to access a library would find it easier to get material on a book maybe written eons ago compared to a person who is not a bookworm. This kind of bibliography can also maintain cohesion of your work as members can cross-reference each other’s description of the source and eliminate contradictions. Lastly, it is a check-proof so that you do not lose marks on plagiarizing off other people.

2. Importance of Annotated Bibliography

Not only for students, this can be useful for other people creating research too. This tool would be very effective when those are used by the people who have just graduated from high school and is entering college. Creating bibliography is important in college, as it shows where the assignment is taken from. By showing important bits that can create stronger assignment, student would use references and also give a little explanation from the reference. This can be used also by graduate students on creating literature, thus he can create a strong point on his thesis. And for many more, including scientist for creating scientific writing, this tool is essential for them especially on creating research from scientific journal. By summarizing the journal, it would be easier to look back when they starts using the summary to create a new theory based on the journal and for creating an advanced journal. This tool is also very effective in creating a proposal for a future research.

3. How to Create an Annotated Bibliography

In this form, each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. A critical annotation goes one step further than simply summarizing the content; it evaluates the work by commenting on its strengths and weaknesses or assessing its usefulness to the reader. An evaluative annotation includes a summary as listed above but also goes on further to explain the work’s usefulness and significance to its audience.

Descriptive: This form of annotated bibliography is not only linked to the nature of the work being an assignment, but it is also popular with students because it requires very little critical analysis. The purpose is to provide a descriptive summary of each work in the student’s own words, making sure they highlight the main points of the work and is useful to identify the work later on. This is the most popular and easily recognizable form of annotated bibliography.

Most annotated bibliographies contain some combination of entries. These could be articles that are on the same topic, or they could be different perspectives on an issue or problem. Many formats are used with more than one type of annotated bibliography. The two most common types of bibliography that are used in undergraduate assignments are:

4. Tips for Writing Effective Annotations

As annotations are meant to provide insight, some annotations are simply descriptive. If you want to get your viewer interested or show your own insight, the annotated bibliography should tell the reader about the content of the work. You need to know where you are going before you write it. Take time to read each source carefully because it will save time in the long run. You will not have to reread the source when you start writing the annotated bibliography. You should not have trouble writing the annotations now that you have reread the sources. Again, you should think about the kind of information you will need to put in your annotations and should have highlighted the most important parts of the source. Work systematically through your list of sources. Write one or two paragraphs (150 words) for each source. This method is the easiest, and you will not miss the key points. After you have written a paragraph on each source, add one more sentence after the paragraph saying how this source will be useful for your research paper, either in providing background information, a new perspective, or supporting a particular point. The annotations should be concise and to the point. Include the general topic and the specific topic the research paper or project will focus on, the audience the source is written for, whether the source will be useful for your research paper, how it compares to the other sources you have, and if it is relevant to the time it was written. Do not write too much—remember, you are writing a summary, not an essay. One or two paragraphs per source is sufficient.

5. Examples of Annotated Bibliographies

The entry does a great job in improving the understanding of this article. The information is well presented and easy to understand. The writer briefly summarises the topic in the first sentence and then breaks the entry up into 3 parts. What is a descriptive annotated bibliography, it is a commentary on an extra comments. This article does a great job at leading in to the next part. After explaining the 2 types the writer gives an example of a Descriptive annotated bibliography and then a critical/evaluative annotation on the same article. I found that it was beneficial to explain all of the information then give example to improve understanding. The author does an excellent job at doing this. Finally she states the significance of the event and importance of the article. Overall this entry is very easy to follow and well organized. I did not find it hard to obtain mare information of what was being said and the examples the author gives are clear and easy to understand. This is a great entry to help people who are having a hard time to understand annotated bibliographies.