Know-How of Annotated Bibliography

Many people mistake annotated bibliography with an abstract; however, both of them have different purposes in an academic document. An abstract has a pure descriptive summary of the paper, whereas a custom annotated bibliography includes critically descriptive and evaluative comments that mainly relate to the sources cited in the paper. Our professional team is well-acquainted with all the technicalities relating custom annotated bibliography.

Annotated bibliography has two different components that include the bibliography or the list of the sources cited in the paper and annotations i.e. useful and elaborative comments about them. An annotated bibliography exposes the author’s clarity, the point of view, authority and the appropriateness of expression.

Steps to Follow

Writing a custom annotated bibliography needs the application of a range of intellectual skills that includes succinct analysis, informed library research and concise exposition. Following are the steps that are required to write an impressive custom annotated bibliography:

  • Locate the citations to periodicals, books, documents or any other sources that contain useful information on the topic you have chosen and record them.
  • Briefly review and examine the actual items.
  • Choose the works that have a variety of perspectives on your topic.
  • Cite the article, book, or document using an appropriate style.
  • After completing your citations, wrote an annotation that summarizes the scope or central theme of your chosen research.
  • Include a few more sentences that (a) determine the background or authority of the author, (b) give a note on the intended audience, (c) relate or contrast with other works that you have cited, (d) put light on how this work relates to your bibliography topic or comment your personal views on the source.

Formatting Guidelines

The type of the format is usually based upon the bibliographic style that your mentor or professor has requested for. The common citation styles are APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago.

Usually, an annotation consists of approx. 100-300 words in a paragraph. However, your professor might have different expectations so it is better if you know the details of your project before starting it. Basic guidelines for the most commonly used styles for formatting are given below:

MLA Style

  • Make sure that you have Hanging Indents in the citations of your bibliography i.e. the first line of the citation must be aligned left and the following lines are indented with 4 spaces.
  • The bibliography is overall double-spaced in between the citations of within them.

APA Style

  • The same hanging indents are maintained within the bibliography as it is required in MLA formatting style mentioned above.
  • The annotation in the bibliography is indented with 2 additional spaces just as a block.

For more information regarding custom annotated bibliography, visit our website and keep abreast with the technical information needed to guide you through your academic writing documents.