Psychology: Annotated bibliographies

What is an annotated bibliography?

A bibliography is a list of sources including books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc. that one has used for researching a topic.

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation.

An annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources.

How do I write an annotation? What? Evaluate?

An annotation describes and evaluates the source. First, you describe. What was the article/book/etc. about? Then you evaluate. If you are stuck on evaluating your source, go back to PROVEN criteria. Ask yourself:

• How is the article related to your topic? How is it related to other works in the field?  
• What is the purpose of the article? Who is the audience and what is the reading level of difficulty?
• How authoritative is the author? Does the author show any bias?
• If someone else were researching this topic, would the article be useful? 

Sample entry for a journal article

For more information