You are likely familiar with a bibliography. Sometimes it is called a list of references, or just references. But, what makes a bibliography an annotated bibliography?
Not surprisingly, an annotated bibliography starts with a bibliography — a list of citations to journal articles, book chapters, or other sources of information. In addition to the citation, the annotated bibliography includes an annotation — a brief description of the journal article, book chapter, or other source. This description of the source is usually short (around 50 to 200 words) and tells why the source is relevant and might tell something about the quality of the source, and whether you believe it to be accurate (or not).
Annotations are not abstracts! An abstract is usually found at the beginning of a journal article. They are also found in research databases like ProQuest Research Library. Abstracts are only summaries of an article, book, etc. Annotations dig deeper. You need to share YOUR OPINION of the work in your annotation.
More information coming soon!
1. Citation. The citation must follow the guidelines of the style required. For this course, you'll be using the Chicago Manual of Style for citations.
2. Annotation. The annotation will consist of several parts. Again, the annotation should be kept short (about 150 words), with most of the annotation being the summary and reflection why the source is important to be included as part of the topic of your bibliography.
a. Summary - What was the central theme of the source?
b. Importance - Why is this source important to the topic of your annotated bibliography?
c. Authority - What is the author's background that makes them an authority on the topic?
d. Compare/Contrast - How does this source compare and/or contrast with other sources in your bibliography?
Important: Make sure that you follow the instructions for formatting in the Chicago Manual of Style. Consult the Cite Your Sources tab on the left. Also make sure to include a couple of sentences about why you chose each source and how they are useful to your final writing assignment.
Below are examples of entries within an annotated bibliography:
This resource was taken from https://www.bibliography.com/chicago/chicago-annotated-bibliography-entries/
You can find similar examples of annotated bibliographies in Chicago Style here:
Has a Sample Page for Chicago-formatted annotated bibliography
