Creating an Annotated
Bibliography
What is an Annotated Bibliography?
A bibliography is a list of sources (generally books, articles, or
websites) that you use in your paper. In an annotated
bibliography, each source is followed by a short summary that
describes the source and explains its relevance to your paper
topic. Creating an annotated bibliography ensures that you
read your sources with care and have a good sense of how
they relate to your topic.
Getting Started
Before you can create your annotated bibliography you need
to gather relevant sources. Read your assignment sheet
carefully. Consider any requirements for the types of sources
you need to find:
1. How many sources do you need?
2. Do you need to find a certain number of books and a
certain number of articles?
3. Do you need to find scholarly sources, or can you use
popular magazines and newspapers?
You also need to consider the topic or question that you are
researching. What kinds of information do you need in order
to write a paper on your topic? Does your topic need to be
narrowed? For more information on developing a topic see
the Academic Skills Centre’s online essay guide.
You need good research skills in order to find the sources for
your annotated bibliography. There are many indexes that you
can use to identify books and articles on your topic. For
information and help with locating sources, go to the Library
Subject Guide for your course or check out the Library Skills
Tutorials.
Reviewing Your Sources Critically
Once you have located your sources, you need to read and
consider them critically. Keep in mind that you do not need to
read every word of every source. Instead, focus on the
argument and evidence presented in the book or article: What
topic or question is the work responding to? What is its
thesis? How is it organized and what types of evidence does it
draw on? Also, consider how the source relates to your topic:
How might you use this source in your paper? Does it support
or contradict your tentative thesis? How does it compare to
other sources that you have read on your topic?
For further guidance on reading academic sources, consult the
Academic Skills Centre’s resources on reading critically and
efficiently.
Writing the Annotated Bibliography
Structure and Format
An annotated bibliography includes the full publication
information for each source as well as a short, paragraph
summary of what the source says.
1. Each source is listed in correct bibliographic form. The
form that you use depends on the course or discipline
that you are in. For example, in history courses, you
would create bibliographic entries according to
Chicago style. For Politics, you would likely follow MLA
style. For a complete listing of the referencing
preferences of Trent departments, see the Academic
Skills Centre’s Documentation Guide.
2. Sources are listed in alphabetical order by the author’s
last name.
3. Each source is followed by a 3-5 sentence summary
that is written in paragraph form.
What to Include in the Summary
Your summary of each source should include the following
information:


For some disciplines, you should include a brief
explanation that establishes the author’s expertise. For
example, you can mention where the author works
and his or her professional title. This information is
usually listed on the title page of articles or on the dust
jacket of books.
a sentence (or two) on the general topic or research
question that the work addresses



a sentence (or two) on the thesis or argument of the
work
a sentence on the author’s methodology. For example:
What kinds of sources are used? Is it a case study or an
overview of scholarship on the subject? How is the
book/article organized?
a sentence on how this source is relevant to your
paper, how it will help your research and analysis, or
how it compares to other scholarship on the topic
Sample Entry Using Chicago Bibliographic Style
Nicholson, Helen. “Women on the Third Crusade.” Journal of
Medieval History 23, no.4 (1997): 335-49.
In this article, Nicholson, a Reader in History at Cardiff
University, explores the controversial question of whether,
and to what extent, women participated in armed conflict
during the Third Crusade [This sentence identifies the author
and central question]. After reviewing different historians’
views on the issue, she examines the widely different
depictions of women’s participation in the crusade given in
Muslim and Christian accounts [This sentence explains the
sources that she used]. Nicholson exposes the biases within
both Muslim and Christian accounts to examine how Muslim
sources tended to exaggerate women’s participation in armed
conflict while Christian sources tended to conceal women’s
roles. Ultimately, she argues that while women played many
important support roles during the Crusades, their
participation in armed conflict was limited to extremely dire
battles [The previous two sentences explain the thesis of the
article]. This article will be essential to my paper in that it
provides an excellent overview of the primary and secondary
sources associated with the debate over women in the
Crusades; it will help to support my argument that, while they
were essential to the Crusades, women were limited in the
roles that they could play within them due to social stigma
[This sentence explains how the article will be relevant to the
essay topic and argument].
Sample Entry Using MLA Referencing Style
Chappell, Drew. “Sneaking Out After Dark: Resistance,
Agency, and the Postmodern Child in J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter Series.” Children’s Literature in
Education 39 (2008) 281-293. JSTOR. Web. 2 Feb.
2010.
In this article, Chappell, a professor at California State
Fullerton, examines the innovative form of child heroism that
Rowling develops through the character of Harry Potter [This
sentence introduces the author and general topic].
Contrasting Harry with traditional child-heroes such as
Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Oliver Twist, Rowling
argues that Potter is a new, postmodern hero in that he
encounters good and evil and right and wrong as ambiguous
continuums instead of clear binaries. Rather than accepting
adult authority, Harry must constantly question whether
authorities are acting for good or for evil and find ways to
enrich his powers beyond what is sanctioned by the adult
world [The previous 2 sentences contain the thesis
statement]. Chappell’s work spans all of the books from the
Harry Potter series as she develops her argument by
examining several “trajectories” including: freedom and
control, institutions and injustice, rule compliance, and
defiance [This sentence explains how Chappell develops his
arguments]. This article will be important to my paper in that
if offers insight into the complex and ambiguous relationship
between good and evil in the books, a relationship that will be
central to my discussion of the characters of Potter and Snape
[This sentence explains the relevance of the source to the
essay topic and argument].
Sample Entry Using APA Style
Morey, D. F. (2006). Burying key evidence: The social bond
between dogs and people. Journal of Archaeological
Science, 33, 158-175. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2005.07.009
In this article, Morey documents the widespread human
practice of burying domesticated dogs and questions what this
practice can reveal about relationships between the two [This
sentence demonstrates the topic of the article]. He argues
that dog burials have been more frequent and more
consistent than burials of other types of animals, suggesting
that humans have invested dogs with spiritual and personal
identities. Morey also demonstrates that the study of dog
burials can help scholars to more accurately date the
domestication of dogs; thus, he challenges scholars who rely
solely on genetic data in their dating of domestication to
consider more fully the importance of archaeological finds
[The previous 2 sentences explain the article’s
argument]. To support his arguments, Morey provides
detailed data on the frequency, geographic and historical
distribution, as well as modes of dog burials and compares the
conclusions he draws from this data to those found by
scholarship based on genetic data [This sentence gives an
overview of the method used in the article]. This article is
useful to a literature review on the domestication of dogs
because it persuasively shows the importance of using burial
data in dating dog domestication and explains how use of this
data could change assessments of when domestication
occurred [This sentence explains the relevance of the article
to the assigned topic].
The Academic Skills Centre
Trent University
www.trentu.ca/academicskills
acdskills@trentu.ca
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