Advanced Writing in the Disciplines (AWD) : Annotated Bibliographies

A bibliography is a list of resources that you've used for your project.

In an annotated bibliography, you include your own annotations, or notes.  For each resource, you may add a brief description, reflecting on what you learned from it and how you have used (or plan to use) it in your work.  Your annotation may be a sentence or two, a paragraph, or more. Be sure to ask your instructor for guidelines about how extensive your annotations should be. 

An annotated bibliography is presented in the form of a list.  Each resource in the list includes a complete citation, plus your annotation. 

Annotated bibliographies help you remember what is relevant about each resource, and demonstrate to your professor or other readers what you have found useful or important. 

Have an annotated bibliography assignment?

1. Check the requirements for your annotated bibliography--what does your instructor expect you to include in the annotation?
2. View some examples of annotated bibliographies in 
   
   Scholar OneSearch
   Search for "annotated bibliography"  and your research subject--you can also limit your results by ebook format if you want bibliographies from books.
   

You can also use this strategy in other research databases such as

• JSTOR,
• Google Scholar @ NU
• Medline 
• ProQuest One Academic

Specialized annotated bibliography collection are accessible at Oxford Bibliographies