The ultimate guide to writing an annotated bibliography in APA format
I bet some of you are familiar with annotations or you might have received an assignment that requires you to find the sources on a particular topic and then, make annotations for these sources. If you haven’t understood, there is nothing to worry about because I will walk you through the entire process.
Before diving into annotated bibliography, you have to understand its basics first and that includes the definition of annotations. I always had to rely on an essay writer when it required me to make annotations. I never learned how to do annotations properly in college.
An annotated bibliography is a list of sources such as websites, books, article journals, and other sources that you are going to use to complete your research papers. You have to evaluate your source and write a summary about it.
An annotated bibliography is either a part of a research project or a report in itself.
There are two kinds of annotations.
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Summary annotations require writing a summary about the source and its author, what it says and what the documents contain, why and how it was produced and how it is accessible to the public.
Evaluation annotation is the type of annotation that you write a summary on but also evaluate the source to check the relevancy, authority, accuracy, and quality of the source. It helps you understand the topic as well as the analysis of it.
You can easily develop a thesis if you know how to evaluate a source.
I was the type of student who never had to work on annotations or essays because I would always rely on someone to write my essay or even do annotations for me. You guys should learn the basics of annotations and not make the same mistake as me.
The style of the paper also matters when you make a list that is either in MLA or APA depending on the type of document. The Work Cited is for MLA and the Reference list is for APA.
You have to understand the difference between these two.
However, we are concerned with APA here so let’s talk about annotations in APA format. It is not that difficult, the only thing that matters is the year and placement of the name of the author and publication.
In APA, you have to format your paper according to APA guidelines. Some websites can provide you detailed guidelines, here we only talk about basics.
In APA, you must follow these rules:
Your paper should have 1-inch margins around the page.
Double spacing
The title should be in bold and centered. For example, “Annotated Bibliography”
References are always organized alphabetically by the first word on each reference.
The first line of reference is placed at the left margin while the rest of the lines after the first line, from left, are indented ½ inch.
Annotations are added from the next line after the paired reference.
Annotations are always precise; always keep them restricted to one paragraph only.
These are basic APA rules that you have to follow to ensure that you are formatting in the right format.
The reference list is placed above and you have to write annotations below.
Example:
Smith, Jackson (2018). The elements of annotated bibliography: rules in academics for students. Google books.
This is just an example to help you understand how to format the annotated bibliography in APA.
This link will be placed at the top after the title and you will write annotations from the next line. If you still don’t understand the guidelines, you can hire an essay writer service and they can guide you better about the formatting and style of the paper. They will charge you a small fee for the samples that they are going to provide you.
One more thing that you need to remember is that annotations are different from the abstract. The abstract is the entire crux of your paper. You have to include your research question, methodology, and findings in the abstract.
On the other hand, the annotation is the evaluation of the source or summary. You have to analyze the source as I have mentioned earlier.
How to write an annotation?
You have to follow these simple rules:
Select your topic:
Students are either provided the topic or given a choice to select a topic. Pick a topic that interests you in case of open choice. Research about it and see what you know already and what you need to understand in detail.
Pick a source:
The next step involves picking a source; you must pick a credible source. Google Scholar or any other database can help you with that. Also, make sure that you choose a source that provides a broad perspective.
Write Citation:
You have to write citations first and write annotations later. The citation is always written at the top. Make sure that you follow the format such as APA, Harvard, MLA, AMA, or any other.
In the case of annotations, you don’t have to add references as you are already mentioning your source at the top.
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Write the annotation:
Now that you have everything, it is time to write annotations. You have to ensure that you know beforehand the type of annotation you are writing. Either it could be analytical or descriptive.
You have to keep in mind the aim, relevancy, accuracy, target audience, biases, strengths, and credibility of the source and provide insight concerning those.
That’s it. I hope you have a basic understanding of annotated bibliography.
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