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HelP: Annotated Bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and other documents. Each citation provides complete bibliographic information. The citation is followed by a brief praragraph of about 100-200 words. This paragraph, which is the annotation, may be descriptive or critical. A descriptive annotation describes the content of the work without judging it. A critical annotation evaluates the usefulness of the work. The annotation paragraph may include some or all of the following:

  • Authority or qualifications of the author
  • Scope and main purpose of the work
  • Intended audience
  • Reading level
  • Biases
  • Accuracy
  • Quality of the work
  • Usefulness or relevance of the work
  • Relationship to other studies/works

Use the following resources for help writing an annotated bibliography.

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