An annotated bibliography is… a list of citations to books, articles, and documents where each citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
Citation + Annotation
An annotation:
Summarizes: What are the main arguments? What is the point of the source? What topics are covered?
Assesses: Is the source useful? Is the information reliable? Is the source biased or objective?
Reflects: How does it help shape your argument? Can you use this source in your research project?
An annotation should include some or all of the following:
Descriptive - gives a brief overview or summary of the source. It can include main purpose, authors’ conclusions, intended audience, research methods and special features.
Evaluative - offers a summary but also includes an analysis of the work. It offers judgments on quality. It may include information on the works contribution to the subject, authors’ authority & bias, usefulness, and intended audience.
Informative - also offers a summary but it also gives actual information such as hypotheses, proofs and other data. Thesis, argument, proofs and conclusion of results are usually included.
Combination - the most common style of annotated bibliographies. It includes a general overview of the article, like the Descriptive; a critical analysis and judgment of usefulness, qualification & bias of the author, and strengths/weakness of text like the Evaluative; and information about the research/results like the Informative. All types of annotated bibliographies start with a citation of the resource formatted to specific citation style standards (MLA, APA, etc..).
Source: "Annotated Bibliography" libguide from Upstate University of South Carolina, https://uscupstate.libguides.com/Annotated_Bib
Citations should still be listed alphabetically like a regular bibliography. The annotation should be written in paragraph form and fully indented under the citation. The above example is for MLA.