The format of an annotated bibliography can vary. If you're doing one for a class, 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 Harvard 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.
Sample assignment template:
Will be uploaded soon
A bibliography is an organized list of sources (journal articles, books, government documents, websites, etc.) on a specific subject area. Citations in this organized list include the bibliographic information of each source, such as the author, title, and publication information.
An annotation is a note, explanation, or commentary added to a text, image, or other data.
An annotated bibliography is similar to a bibliography, with the difference being that each citation entry includes a brief description and/or assessment of the cited source - an annotation. Annotations are short paragraphs which are usually between 150 and 200 words, however, depending on your purpose they may be substantially longer.
An annotated bibliography can serve the following purposes:
Sample annotation
The citation goes first and is followed by the annotation. Make sure that you follow your faculty’s preferred citation style. The summary needs to be concise (please note the following example is entirely fictitious).
In the sample annotation below, each element is numbered (see Key).
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(1) Trevor, C.O., Lansford, B. and Black, J.W.( 2004). ‘Employee turnover and job performance: monitoring the influences of salary growth and promotion’, Journal of Armchair Psychology, Vol 113, No.1, pp. 56-64. (2) In this article Trevor et al.(2004) review the influences of pay and job opportunities in respect to job performance, turnover rates and employee motivation.(3) The authors use data gained through organisational surveys of blue-chip companies in Vancouver, Canada to try to identify the main causes of employee turnover and whether it is linked to salary growth.(4) Their research focuses on assessing a range of pay structures such as pay for performance and organisational reward schemes.(5) The article is useful to my research topic, as Trevor et al. suggest that there are numerous reasons for employee turnover and variances in employee motivation and performance.(6) The main limitation of the article is that the survey sample was restricted to mid-level management,(7) thus the authors indicate that further, more extensive, research needs to be undertaken to develop a more in-depth understanding of employee turnover and job performance.(8) This article will not form the basis of my research; however it will be useful supplementary information for my research on pay structures. |
Key (1) Citation (2) Introduction (3) Aims & Research methods (4) Scope (5) Usefulness (to your research/ to a particular topic) (6) Limitations (7) Conclusions (8) Reflection (explain how this work illuminates your topic or how it will fit in with your research) |
Adapted from UNSW Australia, Academic Skills.