In a nutshell, an annotated bibliography is a list of citations formatted according to an official citation style, such as MLA, APA, or Chicago, with a short paragraph appended to each entry that summarizes, assesses, or evaluates the source. These annotations are typically between 100 and 200 words long.
Annotations help students critically evaluate their materials and sources rather than simply compiling a list of references. It is important to distinguish an annotated bibliography from a standard bibliography, which consists only of a list of works used without any commentary. For more on citation styles and formats, read our guide on how to cite a letter in APA, MLA, and Chicago style. Build your citations in seconds with Quetext's Citation Generator.