Template
What belongs in each annotation, and in what order
You have been asked to show not only what you have read but what you made of it, usually before a longer piece of writing is due.
- Typical annotation length
- Commonly 100–200 words per entry — roughly one paragraph. Some assignments ask for a single descriptive sentence, others for close to a page.
- Usual tense
- Present tense for what the source argues (“Nguyen contends”), past tense for what a study did (“the authors interviewed 32 teachers”).
- First person
- Usually avoided in the summary and evaluation, and often permitted in the relevance sentence where you speak about your own project.
- Citation style
- Whatever the assignment or discipline requires — APA and MLA are the most common, with Chicago frequent in history. The annotation itself is not styled by the manual; the citation above it is.
- Types of annotation
- Descriptive annotations summarize only; evaluative or critical annotations add judgment and relevance. Most university assignments want the evaluative kind.
- Check with your instructor
- How many sources, the annotation length, whether evaluation is required, and whether the list needs an introduction.
THE SKELETON
Section by section
Each block gives you the heading, what it has to accomplish, and the questions that fill it.
1
Scope Note or Introduction
A short paragraph at the top stating what the bibliography covers, how sources were selected, and how the list is ordered. Not always required, and always useful.
- What question or project does this list serve?
- Which kinds of sources did you deliberately leave out?
- How is the list arranged — alphabetically, by theme, or chronologically?
2
The Citation
A full reference-list entry in the required style, formatted exactly as it would appear in a bibliography. It heads the annotation and carries the hanging indent.
- Which style and edition does the assignment specify?
- Do you have every element — authors, date, title, container, publisher, DOI or URL?
- Is the entry formatted identically to how it would look in a reference list?
3 · about 40% of a typical 150-word annotation
Summary of the Source
What the source argues or reports, in your own words. Cover the claim, the evidence, and the scope — not the table of contents.
- What is the central claim, in one sentence?
- What evidence supports it — which method, which data, which texts?
- What is the scope: which population, period, or setting?
- Have you written a description of the topic instead of the argument?
4 · about 30% of a typical 150-word annotation
Evaluation of the Source
Your judgment of how good the work is and where it is strong or weak. Authority, method, currency, and bias are the usual axes.
- How convincing is the evidence for the size of the claim?
- What does the method make visible, and what does it hide?
- Is the source current enough for its purpose, and who published it?
- Whose perspective is absent from the account?
5 · about 30% of a typical 150-word annotation
Relevance to Your Project
The move that separates an annotated bibliography from a reading list: state what this source does for your own work.
- Which part of your argument will this source support?
- How does it relate to the other entries — agree, contradict, extend?
- Would you cite it for its findings, its method, or its framing?
- If you dropped it, what would your project lose?
6
Ordering and Formatting
The mechanics: alphabetical by author unless instructed otherwise, hanging indents, consistent annotation length, and consistent depth across entries.
- Are all annotations roughly the same length?
- Does every entry include evaluation, or do some stop at summary?
- Are entries alphabetized by the same element the style sorts on?
SENTENCE STARTERS
Phrasing you can adapt
Lift these and change the specifics. Academic phrasing is a shared convention, not something each writer has to reinvent.
The author argues that …
Drawing on … data from …, the study reports …
This article traces the development of …
The chapter sets out a framework for understanding …
The argument is well documented, though it rests largely on …
The sample is narrow, which limits how far the conclusion extends.
Published in …, the piece predates the shift toward …
The author’s position as … shapes the reading of …
This source provides the working definition of … used in this project.
It offers a counterweight to Author (Year), who claims …
The method described here is the one adapted in the present study.
It is useful for background rather than as direct evidence.
Questions about the annotated bibliography
How is this different from a literature review?
An annotated bibliography treats sources one at a time and keeps them separate; a literature review synthesizes them into a single argument organized by theme. The bibliography is often the preparatory step that makes the review writable.
Do annotations go in quotation marks or in my own words?
Your own words throughout. Quoting a source’s abstract back at the reader shows only that you found the abstract, and depending on length and attribution it can constitute plagiarism.
How many sources should an annotated bibliography have?
Set by the assignment — 10 to 20 is a common range for coursework. If no number is given, cover the work your project genuinely depends on.
Should I annotate sources I decided not to use?
Sometimes, and it can be the most useful entry on the list. Saying why a promising source did not fit demonstrates judgment rather than just retrieval.
Related templates
Literature Review Outline
You are writing a standalone review — for a course, a thesis chapter, or a review journal — and you have far more sources than shape.
Systematic Review Protocol
You are planning a systematic review and need the method fixed and registered before the results can influence your decisions.
Dissertation Proposal
You are asking a committee to approve a study you have not run yet, and the document has to convince them it is worth doing and that you can do it.
An outline is a start
Plan mode is the rest
Copyeditor’s Plan mode turns a structure like this into sections you produce one at a time, with citations landing in the bibliography as you go.
