Annotated BibliographyAnnotated Bibliography — illustrated emblem for the Mr. B Quotes glossary, category Attribution & Citation“AATTRIBUTION & CITATION
Attribution & Citation

Annotated Bibliography

A source list where every entry is followed by a short note evaluating the source.

An annotated bibliography is a normal bibliography plus a paragraph under each entry, typically 100–200 words, saying what the source argues, how reliable it is, and how it relates to your project.

The annotation usually covers three things: summary (what the work says), assessment (how credible and how current it is), and reflection (why it matters for your argument). Some assignments want all three, others only the summary.

It is used mainly at the research stage and in coursework, because it forces you to actually read what you list. For quotation work it is especially useful: the annotation is where you record whether a source quotes originals or only repeats other people's quotations.

Common mistake: writing annotations that describe the topic instead of the source. 'This article discusses climate policy' is a subject line; 'This article argues that carbon pricing failed in three of four test markets, using treasury data' is an annotation.

Example
“Garner, Bryan A. Garner's Modern English Usage. 5th ed., Oxford UP, 2022. Prescriptive usage guide with frequency data from a large corpus. Useful here for its entries on quotation punctuation, though its judgements on American practice are stronger than on British.”
— MLA-style annotated entry · Full citation first, then a note that both summarises and assesses the source's usefulness.
Related terms

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