An annotated bibliography is a list of citations of sources with a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph following each citation. Since it is used seldom in academic writing, a lot of students have no idea about how to write an annotated bibliography. If you are one of those students, this blog is just for you.
Like a regular bibliography, an annotated bibliography also follows a certain set of rules and regulations. Depending on the instructions you receive from your professor, you will have to prepare your annotated bibliography on APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver or another citation style. You can avail the assistance of assignment writing services, but it is better to learn basics than relying on others.
Here are the major steps to writing an annotated bibliography:
1.Locate and record citations:
When you use any external references to support your arguments in the paper, you need to cite the source of that reference. An annotated bibliography is not different from it. Here, you will need to find and record citations to relevant sources (books, periodicals, etc.). Now, briefly examine and review the source material and use the information in your paper.
2.Cite the source:
Similar to the regular citation process, you will have to use the instructed citation format to cite the sources of data used in the paper. The in-text citation, in this case, remains the same as regular citation format. You will notice the main difference when you get to the final step of the citation – bibliography creation.
3.Create a concise annotation:
Annotation can be defined as a brief summary of the source of data that you have used in your paper. While creating an annotation for a source, you need to summarise the central theme and scope of the source. Also, add another sentence that –
i.Evaluates the authority or background of the author
ii.Makes comment on the intended readers
iii.Compares and contrasts the work with another work you have cited
iv.Explains how the particular piece of work highlights your bibliography topic
In this form of bibliography, each citation is followed by such an annotation. Each of those annotations should be around 150-word long. The purpose of such annotations is to inform the readers about the relevance, accuracy and the quality of the cited source of data.