How do I Prepare an Annotated Bibliography?

The format of an annotated bibliography can vary. It's important to ask for specific guidelines.

The bibliographic information: Generally, though, the bibliographic information of the source (the title, author, publisher, date, etc.) is written in APA Style.

The annotations: The annotations for each source are written in paragraph form. The lengths of the annotations can vary significantly from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages. The length will depend on the purpose. If you're just writing summaries of your sources, the annotations may not be very long. However, if you are writing an extensive analysis of each source, you'll need more space.

1. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to give the reader of your paper an idea about the source you have used. The annotation is there to let the reader know what the source is about and whether you found it to be useful and accurate or not.
2. An annotated bibliography is not an abstract. An abstract is a short summary included in the beginnings of papers to describe what the paper is about to a potential reader. An annotated bibliography does not just summarize or mention what the source is about; it includes your opinion on whether or not the source in question is convincing, accurate, and worthwhile or not.
3. Your annotation should include mention of what the central theme of your source was.
4. Your annotated bibliography is something original that you create to help anyone who will read your paper in the future. It is your judgment about the work that you have decided to use in your research.