Annotated Bibliographies What are they?

WHAT IS AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY? An annotated bibliography is a list (in ABC order) of citations to books, articles, and documents you have researched for a paper or project. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, called the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.

How to cite a book: One author: Last Name, First Name. Title. City Published: Publisher, date published. Example: Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. New York: Putnam, 1955.

So what if there is more than one author? Two authors: Cross, Susan, and Christine Hoffman. Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience. New York: Guggenheim Museum; London: Thames & Hudson, Three authors: Lowi, Theodore, Benjamin Ginsberg, and Steve Jackson. Analyzing American Government: American Government, Freedom and Power. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 1994.

How to cite from an anthology, like your text book: Journal/Anthology article, one author: Author’s last name, first name, “Title of story or poem in anthology.” Name of anthology (date): page numbers. Example: Shefter, Martin. "Institutional Conflict over Presidential Appointments: The Case of Clarence Thomas." PS: Political Science & Politics 25.4 (1992):

How to cite from the Internet: There are multiple formats for citing online material, depending on the type of website or database that it came from. You can use to cite internet sources, or use the following website: Both of these websites are on my blog

Let’s Practice: On your desk, you have a book, a text book, and your article from Friday. You need to complete a citation for each on your notebook paper. The citations should go in ABC order by the authors’ last names, and each one should have a hanging indent. An example work’s cited page will be provided for you.

Now what? An annotated bibliography is more than just a list of citations. On an annotated bibliography, after each citation is a paragraph (150 words or so) that explains what each citation is about. We call this an annotation. An example has been provided. You will now complete an abstract, which is the citation plus the annotation, for the article you obtained on Friday. It needs to have the correct citation, with a hanging indent, followed by a 150 word summary. If your article was super short, you may need to find another one.