Annotated Bibliography and MLA Citation Format
General Formatting Info
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Single space all citations and indent one tab over after 1st typed line
Maintain one-inch margins (on the right) throughout the citation; resume one-inch margins for the annotations
Single space between citation and annotation; double space between entries
Do not number your entries
All entries should be ordered alphabetically
No paragraphs within the annotations
Underline or italicize book titles, but put articles, book chapters, short stories, etc. in quotation marks
Include the page number duration for articles, book chapters, etc. The journal pagination will often look
something like this: 220 (11). You will need to transfer that into a beginning and end page number: 220-231.
Please include web address on the next line, just for clarity
Annotate a chapter within a book, or an essay within a larger collection or anthology (unless you plan to read and
annotate the entire book). When you annotate a chapter, your annotation will pertain specifically to that chapter,
but will also provide a basic context for the subject matter of the entire book
Capitalize the title of the article, even if it isn’t capitalized in the article
Sample MLA Citations
CHAPTER WITHIN A BOOK:
Takaki, Ronald. “The ‘Tempest’ in the Wilderness: The Racialization of Savagery.” A Different
Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Back Bay Books, 1993. 24-50.
ESSAY WITHIN AN ANTHOLOGY:
Desai, Anita. “Scholar and Gypsy.” The Oxford Book of Travel Stories. Ed. Patricia Craig.
Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. 251-73.
JOURNAL ARTICLE (by volume):
Ryan, Katy. “Revolutionary Suicide in Toni Morrison’s Fiction.” African American Review 34
(2000): 389-412.
**If it is a multi-volume publishing, then note the season: (Fall 2000)
JOURNAL ARTICLE (by issue):
Wood, Michael. “Broken Dates: Fiction and the Century.” Kenyon Review 22.3 (2000): 50-64.
Sample Annotation
Rayson, Ann. “Beneath the Mask: Autobiographies of Japanese-American Women.” MELUS 14.1
(1987): 43-57.
[Summarize basic content of the article] This article explains some of the reasons that Japanese
American Women may be more inclined to write autobiographies than men, due to their ability to cope
with the loss of self-esteem involved in internment and racism. It states and reflects on some of the
unique patterns in Japanese American autobiography like masking, multicultural identity, shame in
their parents, and female subjectivity. [Illustrate how it pertains to your selected text/s] These
“masking” patterns can be seen in Okubo’s work, especially when…. [Then connect this idea to your
overall argument] This idea of masking aids in understanding how the interned reacted to the
dehumanizing elements of the relocation camps. Okubo depicts these feelings within Citizen 13660,
but doesn’t portray the interned as victims. Instead, her illustrations become a subversive critique of…