Professional Writing Guide: Annotated Bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is a bibliography that gives a summary of each of the entries. In addition to bibliographic data, an annotated bibliography provides a concise summary of each source and some assessment of its value or relevance. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.

An annotated bibliography should:

• evaluate the author's authority on the topic or background
• comment on the intended audience
• examine the scope or purpose of the work
• mention any bias
• summarize the work

Below are several online guides to annotated bibliographies