What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources (may be any variety of materials, books, documents, videos, articles, web sites, CD-ROMs, etc.) with an accompanying paragraph that describes, explains, and/or evaluates each entry in terms of quality, authority, and relevance.

What is the Purpose of an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography may serve a number of purposes, including but not limited to:

A review of the literature on a particular subject

Illustrate the quality of research that you have done

Provide examples of the types of sources available

Describe other items on a topic that may be of interest to the reader

Explore the subject for further research

The annotated bibliography may be selective or comprehensive in its coverage. A selective annotated bibliography includes just those items that are best for the topic while an exhaustive annotated bibliography attempts to identify all that is available on a subject.

Organization of an Annotated Bibliography

The organization of the annotated bibliography, if not prescribed by faculty instructions, may be one of various methods, including but not limited to:

Alphabetical

Chronological: either by date of publication or by period of subject matter (century, era, decade, event, year)

By subtopic

By format (articles, books, government documents, media, web pages, etc.)

By language

 

Citation Format

The bibliography portion of the annotated bibliography usually follows one of the standard citation formats, APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.

APA Style

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA)

The website at http://www.apastyle.org/ offers some interactive tutorials and help with citing electronic sources.

MLA Style

MLA style is widely used by universities, academic presses, and in the humanities subject areas. The association makes some information available through the style section on its site: http://www.mla.org/style.

 

Chicago Manual of Style

Originally written in 1906, this citation style is favored by writers of theses, dissertations, and other forms of academic publishing.

 

Examples of an Annotated Bibliography Entry

Example 1:

Broude, Norma. Impressionism: a feminist reading. New York: Rizzoli, 1991.

In this publication Broude has taken full advantage of her feminist lens to scrutinize modern French science. Her text is accessible and reader-friendly and uses poststructuralism without becoming a slave to its theories. Her systematic examination of the field, particularly in "The Gendering of Art, Science, and Nature in the Nineteenth Century," reveals underlying patterns of gender discrimination inherent in traditional French philosophy, which upholds Descartes' "I think, therefore I am." Her examination of the social relations between art and science compels readers to take a harder more skeptical look at the sexual politics of postmodernism, whose theory seems to be rooted within the French Cartesian tradition. Her book should be required reading for anyone interested in art, the feminine principle, and how it is treated in a male-oriented universe. (From Feminist Art Criticism; an annotated bibliography. New York, G.K. Hall, 1993)

Example 2:

Dorival, Bernard. "Ukiyo-e and European Painting." pp. 27-71. In Dialogue in Art; Japan and the West. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1976.

Known in France around 1860, Ukiyo-e prints had an immediate influence on the vision and the craft of painters. First, Theodore Rousseau and Millet and then Whistler, Manet, and mainly Degas were profoundly affected. Asymmetrical compositions, scenes and landscapes represented from above or below, figures shown in close-up, pale palette, flat areas of color, the replacement of Albertian perspective with the system of opposed diagonals: all these innovations were taken up by the Impressionists, particularly Monet, who learned moreover not to reduce the scene he was painting to the limits of the canvas, and absorbed a pantheistic feeling for nature contrary to traditional Western humanism. Japanese graphic art had a continuing influence on French painting from the Post-Impressionists to the Nabis and the Fauves, as well as on the work of Ensor, Munch, Klimt and others. After the Renaissance rediscovery of ancient art, nothing had so influenced European painting as Japanese prints. (From Les Fauves; a sourcebook. Westport, Greenwood Press, 1994)

 

How to Write an Abstract

An abstract is a summary in your own words, of an article, chapter, or book. It is not evaluative and must not include your personal opinions. The purpose of an abstract is to give a reader sufficient information for him or her to decide whether it would be worthwhile reading the entire article or book. An abstract should aim at giving as much information as possible in as few words as possible.

The abstract should include:

1. Complete bibliographic information

2. A clear statement of the scope and purpose of a work

3. A summary of the contents

4. A statement of the conclusion or results

SAMPLE ABSTRACT

Timsit, M., and N. Bruyere-DeGeyter. "The Function of Anxiety the Structure of Personality in Sports Participation: Use of the Rorschach Test in Comparing Samples of Basketball and Football Players." International Journal of Sport Psychology. 8.2 (1977): 128-139.

Examines the relationship between athletes and the structure of the athletic personality, and more precisely, the importance of the choice of a sport and athletics in general in the development of the personality. Forty 17-21 year olds (20 football players and 20 basketball players) were studied, and the data were compared with those from 17 technical school students of the same age. Data from the sports group were significantly different from the control group: the sports group showed freer expression, more aggression, a more evident state of anxiety, and relatively more effective control mechanisms (kinetic responses). Data for the basketballers were significantly different from those of the footballers: the basketballers had a higher tendency toward static kinetics, and the footballers had a higher anxiety index. Results are discussed in relation to the athletic capacity specifically called for in particular types of sports: location on the court in basketball, and active and direct struggle in football.

How to Write an Annotation

An annotation is a brief description of a book, article, or other publication, including audio-visual materials. Its purpose is to characterize the publication in such a way that the reader can decide whether or not to read the complete work. Annotations vary according to their intended use and their content.

Descriptive Annotations describe the content of a book or article and indicate distinctive features.

Critical Annotations, in addition to describing the contents, evaluate the usefulness of a book or article for particular situations.

Elements of an annotation:

1. Begin with the complete bibliographic entry.

2. Include some or all of the following:

a. Authority and qualifications of the author, unless extremely well known. e.g. "Based on twenty years of study, William A. Smith, professor of history at XYZ University..."

b. Scope and main purpose of text. Do not try to summarize the whole work. e.g. "Discusses the positive impact of Medicare on the psychiatric profession."

c. Any bias that you note.

d. Audience and level of reading difficulty. Such a comment warns readers of writings that are too elementary or scholarly for their purposes. e.g. "Swift addressed himself to the scholar, but the concluding chapters will be clear to any informed lay person."

e. The relation, if any, of other works in the field. "This corroborates the findings of George Brown's Revolution."

f. Summary comment. e.g. "A popular account directed at educated adults."

3. Do not repeat the words of the title, give the same information in different phrasing, or offer information that an intelligent person could readily infer from the title.

4. Be concise.