ANNOTATED REFERENCES
What is an annotated reference?
An annotated reference is a list of fully referenced sources (books, articles and
documents) that is followed by a brief (usually about 100 words) descriptive and
evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform
the reader of the relevance, accuracy and quality of the sources cited. Each
annotation will include the following two elements:
 A complete citation of each source following APA format;
 A complete and concise evaluation of the source
CITATION
 To have a correct and complete citation list you do the following:
 Make sure that you have recorded all the necessary information regarding
your sources
 Arranging that information with quotations, underlines and punctuation
as outlined in APA format.
 Put citations in alphabetical order.
ANNOTATIONS
Annotations are descriptive and critical. They expose the author’s point of view,
clarity and appropriateness of expression and authority.
To write a concise annotation summarizes the central theme and scope of
resources and includes one or more sentences that:
a.
Evaluate the authority and background of the author.
b.
Comment on the intended audience
c.
Evaluate the quality of the resource
d.
Explain how you are going to use this article to support your thesis
or topic.
A good annotation is both complete and brief (no more than 100 words) at the
same time. Annotations should be written in paragraph form.