An annotated bibliography is a reference list with a paragraph under every entry. The reference says what the source is. The paragraph, the annotation, says what is in it, how good it is, and what it is for.
Instructors set it for two reasons. It proves that you found and read the sources before you started writing, and it makes you decide what each one will do in your paper. The finding and the references are the mechanical half, and EdCitation does both from the publisher's record: Find sources turns up candidates, and Cite a source builds each entry. The annotations are the half that earns the marks, and they have to be yours.
The brief always wins. Neither style manual fixes what a student's annotation must contain, and MLA's own public guidance on the assignment is addressed to instructors deciding what to ask their students for. What follows is what to do where the brief is silent.
What is an annotated bibliography?
An annotated bibliography is a list of sources in which each full reference is followed by a short note, written by you, that describes and assesses the source. It differs from a reference list, which has no notes, and from an abstract, which is the author's own summary and makes no judgement. See also reference list, bibliography or works cited.
For a dissertation it often grows into the literature review, and how to find sources for a literature review is the step before it.
What are the three kinds of annotation?
The three kinds are descriptive, evaluative and reflective, and most assignments want all three in one paragraph. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (n.d.) uses the verbs summarise, assess and reflect for the same three jobs, and puts the reflective question most plainly: how does this source fit into your research, and how does it help you shape your argument?
| Kind | The question it answers | What it sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Descriptive (summary) | What does the source say, and how did the authors find it out? | "The authors tested… and found…" |
| Evaluative (assessment) | How far can it be trusted? What are its limits? | "The sample is small, and…" |
| Reflective (use) | What will it do in my paper? | "This supports my second argument, that…" |
| Combined | All three, in that order | One paragraph, two or three sentences on each |
Read the brief for its verbs: "summarise", "critically evaluate" and "explain how you will use" ask for the three kinds in turn. If the brief names only one, write that one and do not pad.
How long should an annotation be?
One paragraph is the norm, unless the brief gives a word count. Annotation length is one of the few things about this assignment that is genuinely settled by whoever set it, so look there first.
Where nothing is set, the published guidance is consistent. The MLA Style Center (2017) says annotations should generally be no more than one paragraph, and that if you do need several, you indent each one without adding extra space between them. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (n.d.) notes that annotations in practice run from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages, depending on the assignment. Where a library guide gives a figure, it is modest: Red Deer Polytechnic (n.d.) asks for a short paragraph of 50 to 200 words.
A useful test for a one-paragraph annotation is whether every sentence does a different job. If two sentences both summarise the study, one of them is spare, and the evaluation is probably the part that is missing.
How do I format an annotated bibliography in APA 7 and MLA 9?
Format each reference exactly as you would in a normal reference list or works-cited list, then attach the annotation to it. The two styles differ in how.
| APA 7 | MLA | |
|---|---|---|
| Title of the page | Annotated Bibliography is usual | Annotated Bibliography, or Annotated List of Works Cited |
| Order | Alphabetical, as in a reference list | Alphabetical by author or title. By date or by subject is also allowed |
| The annotation | A new paragraph under the reference, the whole of it indented 0.5 in. from the left margin, with no extra indent on its first line | A succinct phrase appended to the entry, or, for full sentences, a line space and then a paragraph indent |
| More than one paragraph | Indent the first line of the second and later paragraphs a further 0.5 in. | Indent each paragraph, with no extra space between them. One paragraph is preferred |
| Building the reference in EdCitation | Cite a source in APA 7 | Cite a source in MLA 9 |
In both styles the reference itself keeps its hanging indent, and the source is styled exactly as it would be anywhere else. The APA Style website offers a free annotated bibliography template for student papers, which is the quickest way to get the margins right.
One check to make on any generated entry: for APA, Cite a source sets a title the record holds in title case in sentence case and keeps names and initialisms, so glance at any name made of ordinary words. Compare the two entries below: APA capitalises only the first word and the name ChatGPT, while MLA capitalises every main word.
What the public guidance does not settle
Two things here are worth flagging rather than glossing over.
The detailed rules live in the manuals, which are not free to read: the APA rules in Section 9.51 of the Publication Manual, and the MLA rules in Section 5.132 of the MLA Handbook, ninth edition. The layout described above for APA comes from a university library guide that follows Section 9.51, and Red Deer Polytechnic (n.d.) is the source used here.
The MLA guidance on the public MLA Style Center is older than the ninth edition. The MLA Style Center (2016) sets out the phrase-style and sentence-style options and carries a note saying the post relates to the eighth edition. You will also see a widely repeated instruction to indent MLA annotations one inch. That figure does not appear in MLA's own free guidance, so we do not state it as MLA's rule. If your brief says MLA 9, follow the handbook or your department's template, and where neither is to hand, the line space and paragraph indent above is what MLA itself has published.
What does a finished entry look like?
A finished entry is the reference, correct to the last full stop, followed by one paragraph that summarises, evaluates and reflects. Here is one for a real article, written for an essay on whether students can rely on AI tools for sources.
Walters, W. H., & Wilder, E. I. (2023). Fabrication and errors in the bibliographic citations generated by ChatGPT. Scientific Reports, 13(1), Article 14045. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41032-5
Walters and Wilder asked two versions of ChatGPT to write short literature reviews on 42 topics from many disciplines, then searched databases and websites for every one of the 636 references in the 84 papers produced. More than half of the references from GPT-3.5 (55%) and 18% of those from GPT-4 did not exist. Among the references that were real, 43% from GPT-3.5 and 24% from GPT-4 contained substantive errors. The study is strong because both versions were given the same topics and every reference was looked up, not just a sample. Its limits are its date and its scope: it tested two 2023 versions on one kind of task, so the percentages cannot be assumed for current tools. I will use it in my second section as evidence that fabricated references are a measured problem and not an anecdote, and pair it with a more recent study to show whether the rate has changed.
That annotation is about 150 words. Sentences one to three describe, four and five evaluate, and the last reflects. Notice that the evaluation names the method, not the journal: "published in Scientific Reports" tells a marker nothing that "every reference was looked up, not just a sample" does not tell them better.
The same source in MLA
In MLA the entry is styled for a works-cited list, and the annotation goes beneath it:
Walters, William H., and Esther Isabelle Wilder. "Fabrication and Errors in the Bibliographic Citations Generated by ChatGPT." Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41032-5.
The journal numbers its articles rather than paginating them continuously. APA gives the article number; the MLA Style Center (2019) advises leaving the article number out, because the author's name and the journal title are enough to lead a reader to the piece. The wider differences between the styles are set out in APA, MLA or Chicago.
What questions should I ask of each source?
Ask the same seven questions of every source, and take notes under them as you read.
- What is the question? What did the authors set out to find or argue?
- How did they answer it? An experiment, a survey, a review, an argument from texts? How many participants or cases?
- What did they find? The main result, in one sentence, with its number if it has one.
- Where was it published? A peer-reviewed journal, a university press, a government body, a campaign group? And is it still standing? Cite a source screens each source for retraction as it builds the reference.
- What are the limits? The date, the sample, the place, what was not measured, who paid for it.
- How does it sit with my other sources? Does it agree, disagree, or fill a gap?
- What will I use it for? Background, a definition, evidence for one point, a view to argue against?
Questions one to three give the descriptive part, four to six the evaluative part, and seven the reflective part. Answer them while the full text is open, because an annotation written a fortnight later from the title alone reads exactly like one.
What are the common mistakes in an annotated bibliography?
A frequent mistake is to summarise when the brief asked for evaluation. Others to watch for:
- Copying or lightly rewording the abstract. The abstract is the authors' text. Copying it is plagiarism, and it contains no judgement, so it cannot earn the marks for evaluation. If you are unsure how close your wording sits, Check plagiarism, a Pro tool, shows which passages match published or web text, with the source each one matches; a match is a reason to look again, not proof either way.
- Evaluation without reasons. "This is a reliable source" is not an assessment. Say why: the method, the sample, the publisher.
- Reflection that is really a summary. "This is useful for my essay" says nothing. Name the section it will appear in and the claim it will support.
- Errors in the reference. The reference is marked as strictly as in any reference list, and the indent of the annotation differs between the styles. For the in-text side, see APA 7 in-text citations.
- Sources you did not read. An annotated bibliography is the assignment that makes this obvious, which is rather the point of it. A reading list from a chatbot is the worst case: in the study annotated above, more than half the GPT-3.5 references did not exist. Put any such reference through Verify references before you spend a paragraph on it.
How do I get the references themselves right?
Build each reference from the source's own record and spend your time on the annotations. EdCitation is the best tool for that first half, because it looks every reference up and never writes one, where a chatbot writes a reference instead of finding it: that is how Walters and Wilder (2023) came to find that 55% of the GPT-3.5 references did not exist. Cite a source takes a DOI, a title, a PubMed ID, an ISBN or a web address and sets out the entry in any of six styles, APA 7 and MLA 9 among them, with every detail taken from the publisher's record and the source screened for retraction, so the part a marker checks first is right before you write a word of annotation. It is free, with no account.
Keeping the list while you annotate
A free account keeps the entries as a reference list in the dashboard. Tag each reference with the section of your paper it will serve, which is the reflective part of the annotation made visible, then paste the list into your document with its italics intact, or take it as a Word download, and write the annotations under the entries.
When the list is complete, Verify references looks each entry up: it comes back verified, marked "check this", or not found, and a retracted paper is flagged. That is free as well. Paid checks on a finished paper, such as the plagiarism check above, come with Pro at $8 a month or Max at $24 a month. EdCitation does not write annotations, or any other part of a paper: the judgement in an annotation has to be yours.
Quick questions
Is an annotated bibliography the same as a literature review?
No. An annotated bibliography treats sources one at a time, each with its own paragraph. A literature review is continuous prose organised by theme, which compares sources with each other. An annotated bibliography is often the preparation for a literature review.
Is an annotated bibliography in alphabetical order?
In APA 7, yes: entries follow the same order as a reference list. The MLA Style Center (2016) says a list may be alphabetical by author or title, or arranged by date of publication or by subject.
Can I use the abstract as my annotation?
No. The abstract is the authors' own description, so copying it is plagiarism, and it never evaluates the source or says how you will use it. Write the annotation from your own notes on the full text.
How long should each annotation be?
One paragraph, unless the brief says otherwise. Red Deer Polytechnic's guide suggests 50 to 200 words, and the MLA Style Center says an annotation should generally not run beyond a single paragraph.
How many sources should an annotated bibliography have?
The brief decides. If the brief is long, paste it into EdCitation's Check your paper, which lists the required number of sources with the sentence that sets it. If it does not say, ask, because the number varies widely between courses. The same reasoning as for essays applies, and it is set out in how many references you need.
References
- American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Annotated bibliography student paper template [Word document]. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/annotated-bibliography-student-paper.docx
- Modern Language Association. (2016, November 4). What guidance should I give my students for preparing an annotated bibliography? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/annotated-bibliographies/
- Modern Language Association. (2017, November 10). Should I double-space between paragraphs in my annotated bibliography? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/annotation-and-paragraphs/
- Modern Language Association. (2019, March 27). How should I cite an article from a journal that uses article numbers and starts pagination anew for each article? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/journals-with-article-numbers/
- Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Annotated bibliographies. Purdue University. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/annotated_bibliographies/index.html
- Red Deer Polytechnic Library. (n.d.). APA 7th edition: Annotated bibliography. https://guides.rdpolytech.ca/apa7/annotated
- Walters, W. H., & Wilder, E. I. (2023). Fabrication and errors in the bibliographic citations generated by ChatGPT. Scientific Reports, 13(1), Article 14045. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41032-5