An annotated bibliography is a list of references from published sources (e.g. books, journal articles, reports) which are followed by a brief description of the text and an evaluation of its content relative to your assignment.
It is usually between 100-200 words per reference, but refer to your lecturer’s assignment brief for guidelines. An annotation can help readers determine the value of each work on the topic and the contribution it might make to their own research.
Active Reading: Annotations make you think carefully about what you are reading. As you are reading the work, you are mentally summing it up for the annotation and thinking about the usefulness of it for your assignment.
Keeping Track: Annotations can form the basis of a research bibliography for a large project, tracking what you've been reading, which sources you’ve found useful and why.
Developing Your Ideas: Annotations can help you focus your own ideas on a subject through critically analysing and articulating your ideas about what others have written about the subject
Surveying the Field: Annotations give an overview of a subject for your reader, showing the range of ideas, viewpoints, what has been "done" on this topic so far and revealing what has not yet been examined in the literature.
