An Annotated Bibliography is Excellent Preparation for a Research Project

An annotated bibliography is an essential part of the research process. The researcher will learn more about his or her topic while creating the annotations for the bibliography. Collecting the sources is useful, of course, but analyzing them and writing a short summary of each one prior to starting the actual drafting of the paper will give the researcher/writer so much more information to work with. The annotated bibliograpy will provide direction for the final paper as well as help determine how to organize the information.

What is an annotated bibliography?

A bibliography is a list of sources, including the bibliographic detail of each like the author's name, the title of the article, the name of the magazine or journal, the web address if it is an online source, and the dates of publication. This is useful information in itself, and it is usually listed in alphabetical order on the last page of the research paper.

An annotation is simply a summary or evaluation of the material found in the article or book listed in the bibliography list. It is generally no more than one paragraph, perhaps five sentences at the most.

How is an annotated bibliography created?

Start with a list of sources. Format the list according to the format style set by the professor of the class or editor of the publication you are writing for. Common format styles are APA (American Psycological Association) or MLA (Modern Language Association). Once the list is in alphabetical order, go back and read and summarize each of the articles in the list. Write three to five sentences on each one, highlighting the main points in each article. Place the annotation under the source in the list.

Review and reflect on the annotations.

After writing the annotations, it is time to start working on the draft of the paper. Start by reviewing and reflecting on the annotations and creating the outline based on how the information should be presented in the paper. The annotations will help you define the organization and create the outline. You will be able to quickly evaluate which information you will highlight in your own paper as welll as be able to form your own point of view because you have read and summarized a variety of ideas about the issues in your topic.

Review other annotated bibliographies.

As you are conducting your research, look for annotated bibliographies on the topic as they are going to be concise accountings of the articles you are looking for. You can determine which articles you want to actually use without having to read the entire article. Sometimes there are very comprehensive annotations written, which will become invaluable as you conduct your own research.