LSP 112 (Ibata-Arens): Capitalism and Democracy: Annotated Bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is a list of the sources (e.g. books, journal articles, data, news articles, etc.) that you will use to research a topic in preparation for writing your research paper.

In an annotated bibliography, each source in the list is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph of 4-5 sentences (approx. 150 words or more), which includes its relevance to your paper topic and argument.

An annotated bibliography entry consists of two components: the Citation and the Annotation.

Citation

The citation should be formatted in the Chicago Bibliographic style. For more information, see Purdue Online Writing Lab's Chicago Manual of Style.

Annotation

Generally, an annotation is approximately 150-350 words in length (one paragraph). 

An annotation may include the following information:

• A brief summary of the source
• The source’s strengths and weaknesses
• A clear indication of the sources relevancy, accuracy and quality.
• Its conclusions
• Why the source is relevant in your field of study
• Its relationships to other studies in the field
• An evaluation of the research methodology (if applicable)
• Information about the author’s background
• Your personal conclusions about the source

The quality and usefulness of your bibliography will depend on your selection of sources. Define the scope of your research carefully so that you can make good judgments about what to include and exclude. Your research should attempt to be reasonably comprehensive within well-defined boundaries. Consider these questions to help you find appropriate limits for your research:

• What problem am I investigating? What question(s) am I trying to pursue? 
• How current should resources be?
• Are all countries and locations in my topic represented in my resources?
• What kind of material am I looking for? (academic books and journal articles? government reports or policy statements? data? articles from the popular press? primary historical sources? etc.)
  • Tip: a mix of resources is generally recommended 
• Am I finding essential studies on my topic?
  • Tip: read useful articles carefully to see what sources they use and why. Keep an eye out for studies that are referred to by several of your sources.

Here are some examples of Chicago citations by resource type:

• Book
  • Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.
  • Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums. New York: Viking Press, 1958.
• Journal article
  • full name of the author(s), article title, journal title, and issue information. Issue information refers to volume, issue number, month, year, and page number(s). For online works, retrieval information and the date of access are also included.
  • Bent, Henry E. "Professionalization of the Ph.D. Degree.” College Composition and Communication 58, no. 4 (2007): 0–145. Accessed December 4, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1978286.
• News article
  • name of the author (if listed), headline or column heading, newspaper name, month (often abbreviated), day, and year.
  • Deo, Nisha. “Visiting Professor Lectures on Photographer.” Exponent (West Lafayette, IN), Feb. 13, 2009

• Format your citation in alphabetical order by the first author's last name.
• Annotations should be indented .05 to 1 inch
• Your source should be formatted how it would appear in a works cited or reference list.
• Include in-text citations if you reference other works within a single annotation.
• Annotated Bibliography Samples from Purdue OWL