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Annotated Bibliographies: Home


What is this guide for?

Annotated bibliographies are great research tools. Creating one as an assignment is a good learning experience. It involves skills of selection, evaluation, description, and critical thinking, and will take you through these steps:

Annotated bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is a helpful research tool that lists useful resources for a specific research topic or area. It includes:

  • short commentary or summary for each book, article, Web site, etc. that it lists. The commentary is descriptive (tells about the content), and
  • an evaluation that informs the reader about the author's point of view, whether the item is "mainstream" or takes a new or radical tack, and
  • an indication of the sources' usefulness in answering the research question.

Annotated bibliographies answer the question: "What would be the most relevant, most useful and most up-to-date sources for this topic?" As an assignment, they get you to engage in the work of scholarship, using your knowledge, research, and critical thinking skills.

Where to get help


This guide has been adapted with permission from the excellent Annotated Bibliography guide by Tony Amodeo of the William H Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University.
