An annotated bibliography is a list of primary and secondary sources you expect will be useful sources for your research paper.
Annotated bibliographies look much like the lists of citations you may have included at the end of essays or other projects, but they have one key difference: They include a brief paragraph summarizing the author’s argument (or the primary source’s purpose) and explaining how the source will be useful to your research.
In writing your annotated bibliography, here are the basic protocols you need to follow:
1. In the discipline of history, we use the Chicago Manual of Style to format our citations. This quick guide shows you how to write bibliographic entries in this citation style.
2. Your annotations should use full sentences to summarize either (a) the purpose of the primary source or (b) the author’s argument or perspective in a secondary source, as well as explain the source’s usefulness for your research.
3. Separate your annotated bibliography into two sections, with headings: Primary Sources and Secondary Sources. Alphabetize the sources in each section by author’s last name.
4. For the purposes of this class, and at this stage of your research, you should include at least 20 sources in your annotated bibliography. The ratio of primary to secondary sources will vary from topic to topic, but in my experience, most papers benefit from having roughly 50% of the sources be secondary and 50% be primary.
Here’s an example of an annotated bibliography on Civil War sources. While the author of this sample bibliography mostly summarizes sources or evaluates their significance, your annotated bibliography should include both a summary and an explanation of why each source will be relevant to your research.