Week 6 essay

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Skill Builder 12: Annotated Bibliography Guidelines

How to Construct an Annotated Bibliography Entry

The annotated bibliography is meant to be a short-cut for you. You will read hundreds of journal articles, so it

will be necessary for you to have a way to refresh your memory without having to read the entire article again.

Annotated bibliographies should be around 200-250 words maximum. Most of the questions below may be

answered in one or two sentences. Remember, your writing must be succinct and concise.

1. Identify the purpose of the study. Mention the research question (note, do not list the hypotheses in a

quantitative study – just list the overall research question).

2. Population – to what population of people did the study refer (note, this is different than the sample).

3. Sample – who participated in the study? How many participated? How were they recruited (purposeful

sample, random sample, etc.).

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4. What type of Methodology was used – quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods?

5. What Design within the Methodology was used?

If quantitative, was it a correlational study, experimental, causal (cause and effect)?

If qualitative, was it a phenomenological study, case study, ethnographical study, other?

If mixed methods, describe the designs used.

6. Instruments

If quantitative, which survey instrument(s) was (were) used?

If qualitative, were the interviews recorded, face-to-face, over the phone? Did the researcher review

documentation, visit the field, etc.?

If mixed, describe the instruments used.

7. Data Analysis

If quantitative, was SPSS used? Excel? Other?

If qualitative, was Nvivo used? Excel? Other?

If mixed, describe (briefly) how the data was analyzed.

8. Briefly share the results, conclusions, or findings of the study.

9. Mention the limitations of the study.

10. Describe the recommendations for further study.

Annotated Bibliography Guidelines

Refer to the following guidelines for formatting your Annotated Bibliographies. Throughout your program, you

will read hundreds of journal articles and scholarly resources that you will use for your literature review. You

must have a way to remind yourself of each of the articles so that you will not have to read them each time you

want to incorporate them into your proposal and dissertation.

Introduction. Tell the reader the purpose of the paper and an overview of what will be discovered. For

example, the purpose of the paper is to present two annotated bibliographies.

Alphabetized by author. Just as you would in a reference list, be sure to present your annotated bibliographies

(citations) in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names.

Use the hanging indent format. Within each annotated bibliography, all of the text, including the write-up

beneath the citation, should be indented so that the first author’s last name is the only text that is flush left. The

write-up, including the citation, should be double spaced with the hanging indent format through each write-up.

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On the references page, each reference should be single spaced with a double space between and presented in

the hanging indent format.

No headings. Because you will discuss one resource at a time, there is no need for headings between each

write-up within the annotated bibliographies.

Brief. Annotations are usually one to three paragraphs. Remember, this is an annotated bibliography, not a

research paper. Try to keep your annotations concise and clear with no more 200-250 words. Stay within the

specific elements of an annotated bibliography.

No citations. You do not need to use in-text citations within an annotation because the source of your

information is clear (and listed above in your annotated citation). Also, because each annotation is specific to

only one source, you should not refer to any other sources within the annotation.

No direct quotations. Because annotations give your summary, analysis, and application, there is no need to

use direct quotations. An annotation is your own interpretation of the information.

No referrals to the first or second person. Remember to be objective and remove yourself from annotations.

Annotated bibliographies do not allow for the use of I, me, my, he, she, we, our, you, us, they, or them.

Provide a short conclusion or summary for the entire document after the last annotated bibliography. The

conclusion or summary of the entire document should not be indented – go back to the left margin and

remember to indent only the first sentence of a new paragraph. Remember, the conclusion summarizes what

was presented in the entire paper, and is linked to the introduction.

References Page. When citing sources in a document, you must provide a References Page, even with

Annotated Bibliographies. NCU requires all references to be in the hanging indent format and single spaced

with a double space between. Use the References Page Toolkit to ensure your references page is formatted in

accordance with the particular resource. Recall, if you cite a source in your paper, it must appear on the

references page.