Annotated Bibliography

Your annotated bibliography has two parts:

1. The reference 

2. The annotation. This section summarizes and analyzes the article. A summary is a shorter version of a larger "whole" and, in general, is no more than 20% of the source text. In an annotation the summary is even shorter.

How to prepare your summary:

To effectively summarize a source, you must read the entire source. Do not try to simply summarize the abstract or paraphrase one or two sentences from the article.

• Skim the article once so that you understand the organization and headings. Read a second time more carefully.
• Take notes while you read the text. What are the main ideas of each paragraph?  
• Use the active reading method as you take notes. Remember to paraphrase as you go.

What to include in your Summary of the article:

1. Write the main idea of the article as you understand it  (do not paraphrase the thesis).  What is the study trying to prove?
2. What kind of study was done?
3. What are the main findings of the article?
   • What is the purpose or aim of the study - look at the introduction. 
   • What are the main findings of the article - look at the discussion.
   • What key findings do the author's present - look at the conclusion
   • Are there statistics and proof?

Your summary should accurately represent what the article is about.

This video provides more information about what to include in a summary.

The LC guide on Summarizing provides more detailed explanation along with handouts and videos.