The goal of an annotated bibliography is to learn about your topic, especially when preparing for a research project. Collecting sources for a bibliography is useful, but when you have to write annotations for each source, you are required to read each source more carefully. Writing an annotated bibliography can help you gain a good perspective on what is being “said” about your topic; in other words, what are the “conversations” taking place/surrounding your topic? By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you will start to see what the issues are and what people are arguing; then, you will be able to develop your own point of view.

Your annotated bibliography should contain the following three sections:

• Give the bibliography information for your source (in APA formatting). This includes the author's name, title, publication information, etc.
• Summarize your source: What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered?
  • In other words, if someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say?
• Reflect on your source: Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you will need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?

Below is an example of an Annotated Bibliography entry:

      Holland, S. (2019). The human embryonic stem cell debate: Science, ethics, and public policy. Boston: MIT P.

This is the annotation of the above source.  If one were really writing an annotation for this source, one would offer a brief summary of what this book says about stem cell research.

After summarizing, you can now reflect on this source. Does it seem like a reliable and current source? Why? Is the research biased or objective? Are the facts well documented? Who is the author? Is she/he credible?How does it fit into your research? Is this a helpful resource? Too general/specific? The length of your annotation will depend on the assignment or on the purpose of your annotated bibliography.

Here are additional resources to help you with crafting your Annotated Bibliography.

• Tips for Annotated Bibliography with sample
• How to Create an Annotated Bibliography