A Bibliography is essentially a list of sources that you found in your research process and that are informing the work that you are using them for. A Bibliography can be more specifically referred to as a "Works Cited" page or "References"--they all serve similar purposes but exist in slightly different formats--but essentially it is a documentation of the other voices, perspectives, data, and experts that all you to make your claims in your own work.
Annotated Bibliographies include additional information that summarizes and comments on the source. This commentary can help you as you organize your sources into your project and can also give other people an idea of why you're working with the sources that you are. We'll look at some examples of annotated bibliographies and how to write our own below.
More tips and help with Citations can be found in the Shoreline Library Guide to Citations
Starting Your Annotated Bibliography:
Annotated Bibliographies may call for different content, format, or purpose based on an assignment or need, but in general, most annotated bibliographies can follow these steps that do not need to be completed in exact order:
1.) Locate and actively read your source. Cite this source according to format (APA or MLA)
2.) Summarize the source: this does not need to cover all details and aspects, but should be about a sentence that tells your reader the most important context for your particular use.
3.) Describe how and why this source fits into the shape of your project: what kinds of evidence will you use it for? Is it serving as a counterargument to your main point?
4.) Provide some of your own assessment or evaluation of this source: is this an expert opinion, and how do you know? Are there any biases or critiques you can make about the argument or how it's presented (methodology)?
An annotated bibliography should usually be a few complete sentences, about the length of a paragraph, where you try to include the above information and context so that you can reflect on your research and its results as well as allowing another reader a way to get a good overview of your larger project.
This short video from McMaster University Libraries gives an overview of how Annotated Bibliographies should work, what they can include, and how they fit in to a research process.
Below is just one example of how an entry in an Annotated Bibliography might look and the kind of information it might include:
Lozier, Jeffrey D., et al. "Predicting the Distribution of Sasquatch in Western North America: Anything Goes with Ecological Niche Modelling." Journal
of Biogeography, vol. 36, no.9, 2009, pp. 1623-1627. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40305930.
This paper critiques the use of Ecological Niche Models (ENM) and species distribution by performing a tongue-in-cheek examination of the distribution of the fictional Sasquatch, based on reports from an online Bigfoot archive. Lozier's paper powerfully demonstrates the issues faced by ENM, when reports come from non-specialists, and highlights key problems with sourcing data from unmediated online environments. The author neglects to compare the reliability of the many wildlife databases with the single Bigfoot database, as well as other key issues; however in closing, the paper briefly mentions that many issues lie outside the scope of the short article. Lozier's paper advises professionals in fields using ENM to carefully assess the source of the data on which the model is based and concludes that the distribution of rare species in particular is often over-reported to misidentification.
Bibliographies generally exist to give credit to an original source by including the name of the author (if there is one), the title of the work, where another researcher might also find that work, and other context like year of publication that can tell your readers more about the conversation that your report enters into. This makes sure we're giving proper credit to someone's original ideas, but also frames us as participants in the larger discourse around this topic.
There a few different formats in which we generally cite sources for our bibliographies that can correspond to the kind of discipline or field that information exists in or the purpose of the citation. APA (American Psychological Association) is often used in the sciences and MLA (Modern Language Association) is used more in the humanities or social sciences, but many fields use both formats.
Below are a few tutorials and resources for gathering the right information from a source to include in your bibliography, and how to format it.
MLA Format
The Modern Language Association Style Guide includes rules and recommendations for citing different, less traditional, sources, as well as guidelines for formatting bibliographies and writing.
This video tutorial from Hayden Memorial Libraries presents a little more detail:
The APA Style Guide is a great resource, especially for citing nontraditional sources and with examples of References or In-Text Citations, and other resources.
You can also review more citation information on the Shoreline Community College Library's guide.
(American Psychological Association)
APA 7th Ed. includes guidelines for both References (when you list your resources at the end of your paper) and In-Text Citations (when you refer to a resource as evidence within your paper).
APA Style References
APA Reference entries should include five main categories: Author, Date, Title of Work, Source where you found this Work, URL or DOI
Formatted like this:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date). Title of the work. Source where you can retrieve the work. URL or DOI if available
APA Style In-Text citations:
If I am referring to my source as evidence within my paper, I use two of those categories: Authors and Year
Formatted like this:
(Author's Last Name(s) or Organization, Year).
Check out this video for an overview of APA citation format:
In each citation style, note that there are different formats for noting In-Text Citations, where you indicate within your writing when you are using information or language directly from another resource and then a References or Works Cited Page compiled at the end of your writing where you list out all of the resources you used alphabetically.