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Citation and formatting of the bibliography

The main difference between an ordinary bibliography and the annotated one is that an annotated bibliography includes a short summary or an evaluation.

Why do you need to write it? It helps students to make a review of sources they have at their disposal before proceeding to course work or document.

If you want a proper bibliography to be attached to your custom paper, you should start with citations. The most valuable source of citations is a periodical edition, where you can find a concise statement on the topic. Citations act as the list of references and are basically the authoritative links you add to your work. This way, your teacher knows you have reliable information at hand and can incorporate it successfully into the body of the work.

Citations are:

  • Scholarly articles
  • Books
  • Abstracts
  • Websites

Style of citation

Make sure you use the right style to your citation. Before including it in your paper, organize a meeting with your teachers to know what they would like to see in a course work or a dissertation. If you are still confused, you can use one of the most widespread styles in writing, which are the Modern Language Association (MLA) guide or the American Psychological Association (APA) guide.

Do not forget to mention the authors and include a full list of name you’ve referred to in your work. Use the title of the book and name the publishing house together with the year of publication. Same rules apply to the website revision, and you are supposed to format the paper according to your university’s standards. In some cases, you will need to organize your citations in a certain way. Teachers usually demand to apply one of the following methods:

  • Alphabetical
  • Chronological
  • By topic
  • By format

How to make annotations

You should fit your annotations in one sentence. Why do we need these summaries? First of all, they help the reader to track the process of your thought. Secondly, annotations serve as contextual descriptions of the topic, unlike abstracts, which are merely brief summaries of a custom paper. To give your readers a full understanding of what your work is about, you should name the main arguments and the major point of the research.

Before you put the name of the author on the list, you should give credit to their accomplishments and background. Famous authors often have a lot of publications and an extensive academic record, so their names are found in student publications and scientific journals. If some of the writers have an outstanding quality to their research, like, having a bias or stereotypical thinking on a particular topic, you should also include it in the annotated bibliography.

Audience and themes

Use the topics as a starting point for your bibliography. You should cover all the themes that relate to your research and think of the additional questions, like the purpose of an annotated bibliography or the brief summary of work. After you’ve done research on the topic, you should take some time to rest and revaluate your sources once again. Do they reflect the theme of the paper? Are they analytical and well-thought?

After you provided answers on the topic, it’s time to define the target audience. Some parts of your research may be too complex for an ordinary reader, but your teacher would find them appropriate, and vice versa. You should also inform the reader if the research is academic or can be used for educational purposes as well. Marking the sources that you found for a bibliography will help your audience read the paper. If there is a glossary or a vocabulary of terms included, do not forget to mention it in your writing.

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