In this lesson, you will learn how writers create and use annotated bibliographies according to guidelines established by the American Psychological Association (APA). You will discover how this ability will improve your communication skill. Specifically this lesson will cover:
1. Purpose of Annotated Bibliographies
As you've learned, a bibliography is a list of sources that provides data related to each source including the author's name, the title, publication information, and page numbers referenced. An annotated bibliography is also a list of sources that provides related data, but it contains brief notes about each source to explain how it relates to the thesis.
Annotated bibliographies enable writers to organize key information about sources. They make the drafting and revising processes easier, because data can be easily accessed. Writers can refer to their annotated bibliographies while drafting to find the information they need to create in-text or parenthetical citations. You will create an annotated bibliography in Touchstone 2.2.
By means of a bibliography, writers let readers know what they found during the research process and where they found it. Annotated bibliographies help writers remember why, and in what way, sources are relevant to their argument, and how to use those sources in their essays.
By this point in the course, you have a good understanding of how to find and use credible data. However, it’s not enough to just use this data—you also have to show your audience that it’s credible. A bibliography shows readers that you have done your research and that the facts you provide come from trusted sources. This builds your credibility as a writer and develops your communication skill.
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- Annotated Bibliography
- A list of research sources that includes data and brief notes about how each source relates to the writer's thesis.
2. Compiling Sources
When responding to a source, there are several steps that writers should take to create (and eventually use) an annotated bibliography.
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- Take notes that summarize the thesis and main ideas of the source, and respond with your thoughts and impressions about it (or its argument).
- Ask yourself whether you agree or disagree with the source's claims, and if you see problems with the source that must be addressed (or explored) in your essay. Does something about the source excite you? If so, should you address it in your essay?
- Note the sources to which your source refers. Often, you can use them too.
- When you have completed the preceding steps (including answering the questions), record the bibliographic data. This is important because sources sometimes get lost or must be returned to libraries, etc. If you have your notes and the bibliographic data, you probably have everything you need to use the source effectively.
Bibliographic data includes the following:
- The author's (or authors') first and last name(s)
- The title of the source
- Publication information: the date of publication and the name of the publisher, as well as the umbrella source (e.g., the literary journal that published the article you've cited or, for online sources, the URL)
- The date you accessed the source, and the page numbers corresponding to quotations or ideas you plan to use
3. Structure and Style
When you write an annotated bibliography for a course, as you will for Touchstone 2.2, consider that the professionalism of the product is a direct reflection of the quality of the paper that will result.
The following steps can help you be conscious of the structure and style of your annotated bibliography.
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- Begin by listing complete bibliographic information (author, year, source name, publisher, etc.) just as you would on the “References” page at the end of a paper.
- Provide a sentence or two describing the contents of the source.
- Summarize the various relevant topic areas that the source discusses.
- Avoid vague phrasing and empty sentences. Weed out any generic sentences such as, “This source is very useful because it has tons of really good information.”
- Use present tense and future tense verbs to facilitate the immediacy of the information and the actual future use of sources.
- Discuss the exact way that you will use the source (e.g. for background information, for data, for graphics, or as a bibliographic tool).
- Carefully judge the value of the source by considering, for example, its level of detail, bias, or the timeliness of its data.
- Note if the source’s text or bibliography will lead you to other sources.
- Comment on anything that you find especially noteworthy about a source: Is it controversial? Definitive? Political? New?
- Format the annotated bibliography so that each description is clearly associated with the proper source.
4. Reference Formatting
The bibliographic information you will include at the beginning of each entry in the annotated bibliography should be formatted according to American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. This information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.
The format of these citations will be the same as those you include on the “Works Cited” page at the end of your essay. Just like the citations on that page, you will want your annotated bibliography entries to be double-spaced and appear in alphabetical order by the author's last name. If you get the formatting of these citations right on your annotated bibliography, you will save time later when creating your “Works Cited” page.
The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:
- The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
- The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
- The full title of the source
- For books, the city of publication
- For articles and essays, the name of the periodical or book where they appear
- For periodical articles, the volume, issue, and page numbers
- For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located
Below is a sample reference list with each source labeled by type. (You will not need to label your source types; this is shown here as a formatting example). Remember that in your annotated bibliography, you will include a paragraph below each source summarizing its argument and explaining its relevance to your thesis.
Book
Agatson, A. (2003).
The South Beach diet. New York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin.
Journal article with multiple authors
Ebbeling, C. B., Leidig, M. M., Feldman, H. A., Lovesky, M. M., & Ludwig, D. S. (2007). Effects of a low-glycemic load vs. low-fat diet in obese young adults: A randomized trial.
Journal of the American Medical Association,
297(19), 2092-2102.
Web source
Harvard School of Public Health. (2018). Diet review: Ketogenic diet for weight loss.
The Nutrition Source. Retrieved from
www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/diet-reviews/ketogenic-diet
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In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.
5. Creating an Annotated Bibliography
Annotated bibliographies require writers to provide certain information for each source. Bibliographic data must be formatted according to the required style. In this course, you will be using APA style.
The bibliographic data is then followed by a brief paragraph about the source. This paragraph should include a sentence or two that restates and summarizes (in the writer's own words) the thesis and main ideas of the source, and one or two sentences that indicate how the source could be used to support the writer's essay.
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Based on their current needs or preferences, some writers include longer notes, as well as key quotations and paraphrased passages (to be used in the essay) in annotated bibliographies. This could save you time later when you compile your research into a persuasive argument.
When each annotated entry is complete, it should be inserted in the bibliography in alphabetical order, according to the style guidelines that are being used, in this case, APA style.
6. Sample Annotated Bibliography
The following example includes three sources and the annotations that were used before writing an essay. The sources are listed alphabetically, according to the author's last names or the article title.
Sample Annotated Bibliography in APA Format
History.com Editors. (2017, October 17).
Irish Potato Famine. History.com. Retrieved from
www.history.com/topics/immigration/irish-potato-famine
This source includes research information and a list of their sources at the bottom of the article. There is a table of contents with links to those areas in the article. It seems credible and reliable. Unfortunately, there are some advertisements that clutter the page. The page talks about Ireland before the famine and the disease that caused the famine. The information is newly updated. They have links to videos and other articles relating to the famine and Ireland at the bottom of the page as well. Due to the large number of ads on this source, this may not be the best, most reliable source.
Mokyr, J. (n.d.).
Great Famine. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from
www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history
This is a tertiary source that provides a good overview of this topic. The source includes pictures and videos to see on the famine. It discusses what the government did to try and help the citizens. It has an article about the potato when readers scroll down and links to similar topics at the end of the article. This could be a resource for other information. They include a box near the top with the most asked questions with answers and links to all of them. There are advertisements on the site but they are all on the right to reduce the clutter. The author of the article is also an author of many history books and is a Professor of Economics and History as well as a Professor of Arts and Sciences.
The Great Famine. Discovering Ireland Vacations. (n.d.). Retrieved from
www.discoveringireland.com/the-great-famine
This article is a good historical site that describes the type of jobs they had back then and how the famine affected them. It also includes the names of museums that have been built to honor that period of time. It has a few pictures for descriptive purposes and does not have any advertisements on the site which makes it a nice clean website to read. It is mainly a travel website, but they have good history articles to read. It is a non-biased and purely factual document. It talks about how much of a staple the potato was for their diet and why it hurt them so much when the blight made them inedible. This website provides solid information and explanation of why the famine was so devastating and helps put the issue into context for an audience that may not be familiar with this historical event.
Note the bibliographic information that corresponds to the first annotation. When a resource is written by a group or organization, their company name is generally listed as the author. In the case of History.com, a team of editors creates content for the site and is noted on their articles as the author. The publication date is listed next, followed by the title of the essay, “Irish Potato Famine” (in italics). Finally, the name of the website and the URL are listed. Below that is the paragraph that comprises the annotation of the source. It includes basic information about the article and a short explanation of why the writer thinks it will be useful or not.
The bibliographic information for the second source includes the author's last name and first initial. When the date of publication is not known, or it has been edited multiple times, the abbreviation (n.d.) is used. Next, the title of the article is listed in italic followed by the website title and URL. The writer's annotation again includes a short summary of the source and a brief discussion of how it may be useful. Also, note the reference to the other texts they intend to use.
The bibliographic presentation for the last source is the same as the second first source. In this case, the author is unknown so the article title is listed first followed by the title of the website. The annotation includes a short summary of the article, consisting of its thesis and how the writer plans to use it to support her analysis.
As you can see, annotated bibliographies don't have to be long or complicated to be useful for writers during the drafting process.
In this lesson, you learned that the purpose of annotated bibliographies is to organize your records when compiling sources and to communicate the relevance of those sources to your research essay. You also learned that there are steps you can take to ensure the structure and style of your annotated bibliography appropriately convey the required information, as determined by APA reference formatting. To see what the practice of creating an annotated bibliography results in, you examined a sample annotated bibliography that included three different sources. Finally, you discovered how a bibliography develops your communication skill by showing your readers that you are providing credible data.
Best of luck in your learning!
