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Annotated Bibliography: Overview

What is an annotated bibliography?

WHAT IS AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY? 

An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources with a paragraph that describes, explains and/or evaluates the source.  These sources may include books, journal articles, videos, web sites, etc.  The paragraph looks at quality authority and relevance.  

HOW DOES THIS DIFFER FROM AN ABSTRACT?

An abstract is purely a summary of the articles. Abstracts are usually found in the beginning of a scholarly journal article or it may be found within an index of other articles. An annotation is descriptive and critical. Annotations not only describe the source but evaluate the context in depth. 

WHAT ABOUT THE DETAILS?

Annotated bibliographies are set up in a specific order.  Depending on which citation style (APA, MLA, etc.) you use.  There are many examples of these styles online but the OWL at Purdue is usually a great place to start. 

Video Tutorial on Using Refworks

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Creating Annotated Bibliographies Using RefWorks
This tutorial demonstrates using RefWorks to create an annotated bibliography in APA Style.
(Length: 2:24) Transcript

Other Online Examples

There are many examples online, here are just a few.