QUT write: QUT Writing an annotated bibliography Guidelines for word length Writing an annotated bibliography Summary/description Approximately a quarter of the annotation Critique/evaluation Last updated: February 2008 Approximately half of the annotation What is an annotated bibliography? Reflection and closing remarks An annotated bibliography is an account of research that has been done on a topic. As with any bibliography, it is an alphabetical list of research sources such as books, articles, websites and documents. In addition to bibliographic information, it gives a concise summary of each source, including some assessment of its value or relevance. An annotated bibliography may be one stage in a larger research project. Approximately a quarter of the annotation Final considerations Crosscheck your annotation against the assessment criteria to make sure you have addressed all the requirements. Why do we use annotated bibliographies? F old he re • Seek peer feedback on the clarity of your writing style. • Proofread and edit your work. An annotated bibliography may have a variety of purposes: • reviewing the literature on your subject • demonstrating the quality and depth of your reading For further information and examples of annotated bibliographies go to: • showing the scope of sources available, e.g. journals, books, websites www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/annotated_bib.html • informing the reader of the relevance, accuracy and quality of sources that may be of interest www.owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/02/ • exploring and organising sources for further research. www.utoronto.ca/writing/annotatebib.html How do we write an annotated bibliography? There are two main sections to each annotated bibliography entry: 1. The bibliographic information (the reference). 2. The explanatory paragraphs (the annotation), which provide one or more of the following elements depending on your assessment requirements: • a summary of the main arguments or ideas presented by the author • a critique or evaluation of the source’s usefulness, reliability, objectivity or bias, and a comparison with other sources • a reflection on how the source fits into your research. Page 4 www.citewrite.qut.edu.au www.citewrite.qut.edu.au Page 1 QUT write: QUT Writing an annotated bibliography Below is a sample entry in an annotated bibliography Number of the reference Bibliographic information (the reference). This must include the title, author, publisher and date of the source using the style specified by your faculty. Follow the examples in QUT cite|write. 1. Ladenson, E. (2007). Dirt for art’s sake: Books on trial from Madame Bovary to Lolita. New York: Cornell University Press. Elisabeth Ladenson sets out to study the changing perceptions of what material is illicit, and what is art. This book is a deeply researched study of a number of the most famously banned books, including Ulysses and Lolita. Ladenson has conducted thorough investigations into the writers’ lives, the reception, and eventual acceptance of their work into the literary canon. F old he re Explanatory paragraphs (the annotation). The annotations for each source are written in paragraph form. The length of your annotations may vary depending on your purpose and assessment requirements. They must be written using appropriate language, tone and sentence structure. QUT write: QUT Writing an annotated bibliography When writing the annotation, you might like to consider some of the following questions or sentence starters to focus your thoughts Questions to consider Sentence starters Summary component The author’s purpose is to challenge common perceptions of … What is the author’s purpose? The author supports this claim with statistics from … Does the author present evidence to validate his arguments? This chapter focuses on three main issues. These are … What are the main ideas expressed by the author? Critique or evaluation component How do the ideas presented in the text match or differ from other authors’ ideas? The author challenges the common notion of … The theories presented by this author are supported by the majority of the research in this field … The article provides a basic overview of … Is it generalised or specific? The ideas outlined in this article appear to be largely the author’s personal opinion as there is a lack of supporting evidence presented … Is the text the author’s personal opinion, or is academic support provided? This book provides specific, detailed information on ... The author provides a useful list of suggested further reading at the end of each chapter … Are there any references worth following? Although written for a knowledgeable audience, the writing style is informal and the language easy to understand, with no unnecessary jargon … Who is the intended audience? Consider the language or tone used. Although an interesting article, it is largely descriptive and lacks comprehensive analysis of this complicated subject … Is the piece descriptive or analytical? Reflection component Page 2 www.citewrite.qut.edu.au This website is very useful as it will provide a balanced perspective for students wishing to understand this topic ... How useful was the information? How will you use it in your own work? This article questions the popular notion of … and challenges the reader to consider alternative viewpoints ... Did it change your thinking on the topic? This chapter provides useful background information and is helpful as a basic introduction to this complex topic ... Did the text help you understand the topic? www.citewrite.qut.edu.au Page 3