Annotated Bibliography

Source: http://guides.library.cornell.edu/annotatedbibliography
 What is an annotated bibliography?
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is
followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation.
The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the
sources cited.
 Annotations VS. Abstracts
Abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal
articles or in periodical indexes. Annotations are descriptive and critical; they may describe the
author's point of view, authority, or clarity and appropriateness of expression.
 The process
Creating an annotated bibliography calls for the application of a variety of intellectual skills:
concise exposition, succinct analysis, and informed library research.
– First, locate and record citations to books, periodicals, and documents that may contain useful
information and ideas on your topic. Briefly examine and review the actual items. Then
choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic.
– Cite the book, article, or document using the appropriate style.
– Write a concise annotation that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book or article.
Include one or more sentences that (a) evaluate the authority or background of the author, (b)
comment on the intended audience, (c) compare or contrast this work with another you have
cited, or (d) explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic.

Source: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/03/
 Overview
The annotations you include in your own bibliography should reflect your research project and/or
the guidelines of your assignment.
Depending on the purpose of your bibliography, some annotations may summarize, some may
assess or evaluate a source, and some may reflect on the source’s possible uses for the project at
hand. Some annotations may address all three of these steps. Consider the purpose of your
annotated bibliography and/or your instructor’s directions when deciding how much information to
include in your annotations.
All your text, including the write-up beneath the citation, must be indented so that the author's last
name is the only text that is flush left.

Source: http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/cite-write/citation-style-guides/annotated-bibliography
 Annotated bibliography: descriptive/informative & analytical/critical , which may include
the following:

MA Writing 1
 – A brief summary of the source
– Information about the author’s background (optional)
"Based on 20 years of study, William A. Smith, Professor of English at XYZ University..."
– An evaluation of the research methodology (optional)
"...sets out to place John Turner in eighteenth century England and show the development of his
philosophy in relation to contemporary social mores"
– The source’s strengths and weaknesses and its conclusions (similar to a literature review)
"Turner gears his study more to the romantic aspects of the age than the scientific and rational
developments"
– Why the source is relevant in your field of study
– Its relationships to other studies in the field (to demonstrate your research on this subject)
"Here Turner departs drastically from A. F. Johnson (Two will not, New York, Riposte Press, 1964)
who not only has developed the rational themes of the eighteenth century but is convinced the
romantic elements at best are only a skein through the major prose and poetry"
– Your personal conclusions about the source

Source: http://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/handouts/Annotated%20Bibliographies.pdf
 Sample #1: author-based annotated bibliography
Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Print.
The Remains of the Day is a compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular
world in postwar England. As the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens
embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has
served humanity by serving as “a great gentleman” But lurking in his memory are doubts about the
true nature of Lord Darlington's greatness and greater doubts about his own faith in the man he
served. The Remains of the Day is widely considered Ishiguro's most successful novel. Kazuo Ishiguro's
tonal control of Stevens' repressive yet continually reverberating first-person voice is dazzling. It is
remarkable, too, that as we read along in this strikingly original novel, we continue to think not only
about the old butler, but about his country, its politics and its culture.

Source: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/annotated-bibliographies/mla-examples/
 Sample #2: topic-based annotated bibliography
Doll, Susan and Greg Faller. "Blade Runner and Genre: Film Noir and Science Fiction." Literature Film
Quarterly 14.2 (1986): 89-100.
Doll and Faller assert that Ridley Scott's film, Blade Runner, exhibits elements of two distinct pulp
genres, film noir and science fiction. The genre cross-pollination is a reflection of Philip K. Dick's novel,
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, upon which the movie is based. After a useful discussion of
genre, the authors go on to effectively discuss defining characteristics of both noir and sci-fi, despite
the difficulties of such a project. Through the course of accessible discussion and useful examples from
the film, the complexities involved in the combination of genres are revealed. In addition, the article
also examines the ways that noir and sci-fi in fact complement each other, noir providing a distinct
style and sci-fi a distinct narrative direction. Both genres are also concerned with many of the same
issues, especially social constructs, ethics, and the state of being human.

MA Writing 2