Annotated Bibliographies

Definition:
To define what Annotated Bibliography is, we must define both words separately. According to the
University of Perdue, they have stated that “[a] bibliography is a list of sources one has used for
researching a topic.” (“Annotated Bibliographies”) It is important to credit others if you have
implemented their ideas in your own work. The word annotation just means “summary and/or
evaluation”. (“Annotated Bibliographies”) Now when we combine the two definitions we get that we
need to summarize each source that we provide.

Purpose/list of purposes:
When we annotate bibliographies, we learn about each source critically. What I mean by “critically” is
having a deeper understanding of a said topic. As you create more and more annotations of sources
related to a topic, you start to create your own viewpoint. This is great as you have clear evidence to back
up claims and challenge those who oppose your viewpoint.

How-to:
Whenever you want to create an annotated bibliography, you must first choose a topic. If you can, it is
best to choose one aspect of a topic where you can create a viewpoint easily. Secondly, look through
several reference sources to help you become familiarised with the topic. This is important since the
summary that you will create will test your knowledge of this specific aspect of the topic. Thirdly,
evaluate the credibility of your sources. By doing this you should check the currency, relevance, authority,
accuracy, and purpose of each source that you use. I would highly suggest implementing the 5 W’s(who,
what, where, when, why, and how) of each source to check its acceptability. Fourthly, you will now have
to create a summary of the aspect that you have researched. Before you do that you should first criticize
the author’s writing by stating some of the strengths and weaknesses. With this, you are deeply analyzing
the author's writing. Finally, the only thing you have to do is put everything together! From all the
annotations you have created for each source, you can order it however you want. I suggest ordering it
from the best annotation to the worst annotation.
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/annotated_bibliograp
hies/annotated_bibliography_samples.html