Annotated Bibliography

Annotated bibliography
- Test of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by brief (usually
150-200 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph.

 Working list of references - books, journal articles, online documents, websites.

 Purpose is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the resources cited.

How to prepare annotated bibliography

1. Locate and record citations to books, periodicals, and documents that may contain useful
information and ideas on your topic.
2. Examine and review the actual items
3. Choose those works that provide a variety of perspective on your topic
4. Cite the book, article or documents.
5. Write the concise annotation that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book on
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.
d. Explain how did work illuminated your bibliography topic

 Abstract are purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal
articles or in periodical indexes.
 Annotation are descriptive and critical, they may describe the author’s point of view, authority
or clarify and appropriateness of expression.

General Guidelines – Annotated

1. Main type of Annotated Bibliography

 Summary/Descriptive – a concise overview of the main arguments, evidence presented,
and conclusions (APA Style)
 Critical/Evaluation – in addition to providing an overview, analyze the content,
comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments, evidence and
conclusions, explains the usefulness of the sources for your research topic.
 Combination – include both overview and evaluative comments.
2. Organize sources alphabetically by the first author’s last name.

Example of APA – Combination Annotated Bibliography

Taken from center for Information on Language Teaching and the English Teaching Information
Center of the British Council’s Bibliography
Morris, Joyce M (2014) Reading in the primary school: An investigation into standards of reading
and their association with primary school characteristics. Landon: Newness for national foundation for
educational research.
Report of a large-scale investigation into English children’s reading standards, and their relation
to conditions such as size of classes, types of organization and methods of teaching. Based on inquiries

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in 60 schools in Kent and covering 8,000 children learning to read English as their mother tongue.
Notable for thoroughness of research techniques.

Annotated bibliography has 2 main parts

1. The citation of your book. Article, webpage, video, documentation.
2. Your annotation

How to create
1. Research the required number of scholarly sources
2. Write 2 paragraphs under each source
a. The 1st paragraph is a short summary of the article in your own words. Don’t just cut
and paste the abstract
b. 2nd paragraph is a short discussion of how this source supports your paper topic.
What does this source provide that reinforces the argument or claim you are
making. This support may be statistics, expert testimony, or specific examples that
relate to your focused topic.
Format
Example:
Belcher, D.D. (2004) __________
This article ______________
c. You are to address one text at a time. No need to cross reference to support your
annotation.

Format
APA – American Psychological Association
Example: Journal Article in Psychological Association, 6th ed. 2013

Waite, L. J. Goldschneider, F.K., and Witsberger, C. (2013) Non family living and the invasion of
traditional family orientations among young adults. American Sociological Review, 51, 514-554.
The authors researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data from the
National Longitudinal Surveys of young Women and young Men to test their hypothesis that non family
living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans and expectations, moving them away from
their belief in to additional sex roles. They find hypothesis strongly supported in young females, while
the effects were fewer in studies of young males. Increasingly the time away from parents before
marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency and changes in attitudes about families. In contract, an
earlier study by William cited below shows no significant gender differences in sex roles attitudes as a
result of non family living.

Barlett, C.J. & Rodaheffer, C. (2009) Effects on realism on extended violent and nonviolent videogame
play on aggressive thoughts, feelings and physiological arousal. Aggressive behavior, 35 (3), 213-
224.

This article is relevant to my paper because it asserts that violence has been an on-going issue
since before video games were invented.

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 (1) Trevor, C.O.Lousford, B. and Black, J. W. 2004 employee 1. Citation
turnover and job performance monitoring the influences of 2. Introduction
salary growth and promotion. Journal of armchair psychology, 3. Aims of research
Vol. 113, no. 1, pp, 56-64. (2) In this article, Trevor et. al. methods
review the influences of pay and job opportunities in respect 4. Scope
to job performance turnover rates and employee motivation. 5. Useful to your
(3) The authors use data gained through organizational research
surveys of blue-chip companies in Canada to identify the 6. Limitations
main courses of turnover. (4) The research focuses on 7. Conclusion
assessing a range of pay structure such as pay performance. 8. Explain how the
(5)The article is useful to my research topic as Trevor et. al., work illuminates
suggest that there are reasons for employees turnover. (6) your topic or how it
The main limitations of the article is that sample was will fit in to your
restricted to mid-level management (7) Thus, the author research.
indicates that further study needs to be undertaken to
develop men in-depth understanding of turnover. (8)This
article will not form the basis of my research, however it will
be useful supplementary information for any research on pay
structure.

PREPARED BY:

Dr. Celeste A. Dimaculangan.

Professor