WHAT IS AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?

You’ve done a lot of research on your topic. You might even call yourself an expert now. Other people can turn to you to recommend what resources they should use if they want to learn about your topic. Think of your annotated bibliography as a list of recommendations where you give your reasons for what you chose to use for your research, and why.

For example, say you’ve seen lots of movies. A friend asks you to recommend a good movie to watch Saturday night. Think about what you’d take into account as you consider what movie to recommend: *Where can they get this movie? Netflix? Hulu? HBO on Demand? What movies has your friend already seen? How do the films on your list compare to those? How are they similar? How are they different? What kind of movie is your friend looking for? A comedy? A romance? A thriller? We all think some movies are better than others? What makes your recommendation better, according to you? Is the starring actor really good at action, or romance?

Your annotated bibliography looks at the same elements, but for the resources you used to write your research paper. *Where can another researcher find this resource? In a book? Online? In a database? You looked at several different resources. Why did you choose this one? What made it different? What were you looking for when you chose this source? An overview? A different point of view? Some authors are better qualified than others to write about a subject—just as some actors are better in action movies, or romances, than others. How is this author especially qualified?

That’s the information you’ll include in your annotation. You begin with the citation itself, in MLA format: where someone else can find the resource. Then you very briefly describe what the article or book or website was about. Mention why the author was especially qualified to write about this subject. How useful to YOU was this resource? Was the author writing for a certain audience, or to prove a certain point? How does this resource compare with others you looked at?

SAMPLE: Lajoie, Gesele, Alyson McLellan, and Cindi Seddon. Bully B’ware. Web. 7 Mar This site, developed by three experienced teachers and counselors in Canada, includes a wealth of information on bullying for teachers and parents. In addition to practical information on coping with bullying behavior, the site also gives statistics from various studies on bullying. Also included are links to news stories about bullies and brief descriptions of incidents around the world involving dangerous bullies. This is a reliable, informative site that will be helpful to parents, teachers, and researchers.