Writing an Annotated Bibliography

What is an Annotated Bibliography? A list of citations for resources such as academic articles and books used in your project. Each citation includes a brief descriptive and evaluative annotation. A thorough annotation should be around 150 words.

Why Write an Annotated Bibliography? The annotated bibliography provides information on the relevance and accuracy, and quality of the cited sources. The annotated bibliography serves as the basic information you will use to write your literature review as well as other parts of your research report (e.g., discussion section).

Annotations are not Abstracts Abstracts are the summaries found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles and in indexes such as EBSCO and Psycinfo. Annotations both summarize and evaluate. In an annotation, you describe and evaluate the citation, providing your perspective. DO NOT SIMPLY COPY ABSTRACTS AND USE THEM AS ANNOTATIONS!

Example: Moore Partin, T., Robertson, R., Maggin, D., Oliver, R., & Wehby, J. (2010). Using teacher praise and opportunities to respond to promote appropriate student behavior. Preventing School Failure, 54(3), Teacher praise and opportunities to positively respond in class have been shown to reduce problematic behaviors in the classroom. Teachers must be open and willing to reflect on their teaching and use of praise, through the use of observation and/or self-evaluation. Teachers must also determine the quality, frequency, and meaningfulness of their praise in order to determine its effect on students.

There are more examples in the Sample Annotated Bibliographys

The annotated bibliography Is notes you will use to write your literature review Is not copies of abstracts Is information synthesized with your thinking and for your purposes If done well, makes the writing the literature review efficient and painless!