Ways to write an Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of referred books, articles, journals or other types of publication. Each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph also known as annotations. The objective of annotation is to lay out a summary and an evaluation of each source to readers. In a nutshell, an annotated bibliography is an alphabetically organized list of references and source material. It is different from a direct bibliography as every reference is followed by a paragraph or long annotation, typically of 100–200 words. In addition to bibliography data, it directs the concise review of sources and its significance, thus an annotated bibliography divided into two parts-

•    Citation of book, WebPages, article or document in APA style

•    Annotations

Subject to the allotted research project, this bibliography can be a larger part of whole research work or may be independent. Bibliography section should reflect your research approach and give a brief chart of material used during the formation of papers. Keep in mind that identifying the argument of a source is a different task than describing or listing its contents. There are usually two categories of annotated bibliography which is discussed in given below section -

•    Descriptive or informative- this type of annotation elaborates its usefulness as well as arguments made by the cited author. It directs usefulness of the source for researching a particular topic or question, its distinctive features. It also cites the main opinions and deductions without assessing what the author states or accomplishes during the course of research.

•    Analytical or critical- An analytical or critical annotation not only reviews the material, but it also evaluates what is being held. It critically subjects the strength and weakness as well as clarifying what an author concluded through research.

Some assignments require or allow you to introduce bibliography with a paragraph explaining the relevance of the resources. In order to determine how you used resources and its place, you need to assess the quality of arguments and why it is used throughout the context. For this, discover the notes and areas that are related to the topic. The quality and effectiveness of the bibliography depend on the chosen contents; therefore you have to be sure it has strong evidence in the research supplements. Delineate the scope of your research wisely so that you can make respectable judgments about what to include and omit. Your research should be embedded reasonably broad within correct definite borders similar to:

•    If a bibliography is a part of a research project, it will be prefaced by the research question. Likewise, if it is independent, express your topic as a query by forwarding accurate details.

•    Identify the type of material – Different sorts are academic books or journal articles, Government reports or policy statements, Articles from the popular press, Primary historical sources? Etc.

•    Examine foot and notes cautiously to see what resources they use and why.

An annotated bibliography is a piece of academic writing emanate on general academic writing rule-

•    Arrange in alphabetically order.

•    Use a single paragraph for forwarding details.

•    Write each reference by using a specific style.

•    Write everything in a concise manner.

•    Use examples from other annotated bibliographies to guide and check your writing style

•    Don’t repeat the information which you have already mentioned in the earlier section.

•    Do not cross-reference i.e. use any in-text references as you are only writing about a single text.

Summarizing the argument of a source

Evaluate the genuine sources and select those phrases that can give varied observation on your topic. Article and abstract are useful in this process. An annotation reasserts the main argument of a source. For instance, an annotation of academic projects typically classifieds thesis, its fundamental technique of analysis, and its main assumption. Categorization of the argument of resources is not the same as the listing of contents. Rather than the composition of annotation should describe why the resources included in the projects-

Given below list describes can help you to classify the main argument of resources

•    Establish the author’s main purpose or query. Both the outline and deduction avail you while figuring purpose.

•    Search for duplication of the main expression. Monitor them exhaustively. Through the text and understand how the author uses them.

•    Observe how the text is sequenced. Look out for main division or highlighted segments. This will assist you in the direction of giving a description.

•    Detect how a theory is exploited to infer the data. Classify the technique used to inspect the contents remarked in the text.

•    Go to the opening sentence, where author so often states their chief point in the paragraph.

•    Look for the paragraph and review the argument.

Evaluating the significance of sources:

The main objective of an annotated bibliography is to evaluate the significance of sources. If it a part of the research project, classify how and why you chose the source in brief. The following given sub-points assist you in the direction of elaborating the significance of resources-

•    To decide how should you use resources or define its input, you need to evaluate the worth of argument.

•    Does the source based on the particular body of proof that you want to utilize?

•    How does the source’s assumption accept your own analysis?

•     How well it defines supplements utilization and its boundaries?