Elements of an Annotated Bibliography

Like a Works Cited page, an annotated bibliography is a list of citations for books, articles, documents, and videos; however, it also provides a brief analytical summary of a source and information on how it will be useful to a writer in terms of research and writing. A thoughtfully constructed annotated bibliography facilitates the incorporation of ideas from secondary sources into the conversation of a writer’s argument.

Each entry in an annotated bibliography should include the following elements:

• A complete MLA citation for the source.
• The purpose and main argument of the text
• The ethos/credibility of the publication and the author.
• An analytical summary of the text’s content
• The specific audience for which the source was intended
• Evaluation of its reasoning, conclusions, or reliability
• How you will use the source to analyze a specific aspect of your exhibit, including its relevance and usefulness to your research topic
• Connections to related sources in your bibliography that allow you to compare sources or establish connections and conversations between them, such as similar or opposing views

What Each Element of the Annotated Bibliography is “Doing”

The following identifies the discrete components of the sample annotation to help you understand the basics on what each sentence the sample annotated bibliography is “doing.” Although by no means a formula that will work for every annotated bibliography entry, it at least provides a guide for the required components.

• MLA Citation: Journal Article (Periodical)
  Author Last Name, First Name: Nisetich, Rebecca. Article Title in Quotation Marks: “Reading Race in Nella Larsen’s Passing and the Rhinelander Case” Journal Title Italicized: African American Review, Volume, date of publication: vol. 46, no. 2/3, Summer/Fall 2013, Article pages: pp. 345-361. Stable DOI link to the article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23784063.
• Purpose
  The first sentence explains the purpose or motive of the author(s) in writing the article: Nisetich’s literary criticism article “Reading Race in Nella Larsen’s Passing and the Rhinelander Case” discusses Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing in conversation with the Rhinelander Case, which was briefly referenced in the novel, in order to explore the complex ways in which race was defined in the United States in the 1920s, when the “pure” whites were anxious about the weakening boundaries around race and class.
• Evaluation of its reasoning, conclusions, or reliability
  The student explains the credibility of the article, publisher, and author: The article appeared in the peer reviewed journal African American Review that is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. The journal is the official publication of the Modern Language Association’s Division on Black American Literature and Culture, and (identifies the journal’s specific audience) its audience are writers and scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Author Rebecca Nisetich, who is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Honors Program at the University of Maine, …
• Main Argument
  The student quotes and cites the author’s main argument: … argues that “what seems like a casual reference to a contemporary event actually underscores a central theme of the novel: the Rhinelander case and Passing both illustrate the problematic ways Americans sought to categorize racially ambiguous individuals in the 1920s. But while the Rhinelander verdict denies the existence of a middle ground between racial absolutes, the novel affirms it” (345).
• Analytical Summary
  The student provides an analytical summary that doesn’t just say what the author says but how she makes her argument and quotes the author: Providing extensive historical context on the Rhinelander case, Nisetich correlates Alice Jones [Rhinelander] with the Passing character Clare Kendry Bellew, who also did not comply with the racial conventions of the United States that defined race based on the “one drop rule.” Using the 1925 Rhinelander Case in conversation with Clare’s character, Nisetich discusses the binary notions of race and asserts that “passing” is an inaccurate description of Alice Jones or Clare if they personally identified themselves as white; she thereby contrasts how society defines the women with how they identify themselves and challenges the binary racial construct. The author further contrasts Clare with the Passing character Irene Redfield, who identifies as Black according to racial lines drawn by Plessy v. Ferguson and states that through the characters, “Larsen depicts the artificiality of racial categorizations through Clare and Irene’s passing, but it remains difficult to discuss the act of passing itself without reinscribing ‘race’ as a social fact” (350).
• Relevance to the student’s topic
  How the student will use the article to analyze a specific aspect of evidence from the exhibit (needs to be more specific to her argument): Nisetich’s article for the juxtaposition of Irene and society’s racial identifiers with the contrasting personal identifiers employed by Clare in the novel Passing.
• Connections to other sources
  The student identifies how she will use this source in conversation with a specific aspect of another secondary source: This source will be utilized in conversation with the “one drop rule” discussed in “‘Plessy v. Ferguson’: Who Was Plessy?” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in order to further the conversation on the constructed legal definitions of race in the 1920s and how the characters in Passing navigate them.