Annotated Bibliography: How to Create One

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents, accompanied by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph. The purpose of annotations is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. Annotations typically include a summary of the source's content, an evaluation of its reliability and credibility, and an explanation of its relevance to the research topic. 

An annotated bibliography is typically placed at the end of a research paper or project, after the regular bibliography or in place of it.

To use RefWorks to create an annotated bibliography (in either APA or MLA format), use the steps below:

1. Click once on the Reference that you want to add an annotation to. This will open an edit box on the right hand side of the screen:

2. Click on the pencil in the upper-right hand corner to edit box:

3. Add your annotation to the Abstract field. If an abstract has been imported with the article, it can be deleted.  Make sure you Save before closing the editing screen.

4. When you create your bibliography, use the Bibliography from Selected Reference selection box to search for:
   1. APA 7th - Sentence casing, DOI:empty, Annotated, or
   2. MLA 8th edition - Annotated with abstract

5. Enjoy your annotated bibliography!