Research Paper

Annotated Bibliography
Version 2

An annotated bibliography is an excellent reference document that provides summaries and comments of all of the sources consulted during a research enterprise.   A well written annotated bibliography can be a pleasure to read as well as a great future research tool.   It always provides useful assistance since it contains information about the sources you have read and analyzed.

Often, we forget where we found certain ideas or do not correctly remember which source as the most valuable for what particular information.   Since an annotated bibliography contains more information than just the details of the citation, an annotated bibliography can be the place where you go to solve this problem.

An annotated bibliography differs from a list of works cited because it contains information summarizing and commenting on each source.   The rest of this document will explain the reasons for creating an annotated bibliography and some tips about how to do it.

Any Bibliography or List of Works Cited can provide details of the documents, interviews, and websites consulted in the process of conducting research.   An annotated bibliography goes beyond that point by providing a summary and an assessment of each source.   The comments provide a reference for what documents and sources were valuable in the current research and how they might be useful in the future.

There are several reasons for preparing an annotated bibliography.   The most important one is the practice it provides you in examining the point of view of a document, website, report, interview, article, or book. Reading it carefully for the perspective, approach to a topic and scope helps you focus on what is being said and how it is being characterized.   It also causes you to think more critically about what you are reading while you read it and forces you to make some evaluation of the merits of the source as you read it.

The second reason for...