Annotated Bibliography Template

You

DMY Date [Day Month Year]

Annotated Bibliography

Adapted and updated from library.spokanefalls.edu, October 2015 (Below are sample entries for books, magazine/journal articles, and Web pages. The first three sample Annotation paragraphs are instructional text that you should READ. You probably won’t need every type of entry for your bibliography. Save a copy of this template, type in correct MLA format heading features for the first four lines above, and copy and paste from the template, and fill in source facts to create your own Annotated Bibliogrpahy entries. Find the entry below that best matches the source you have. Select each element of the entry one at a time, and type in the appropriate information. If you have several sources of the same kind, copy and paste as necessary. After all your items are entered, rearrange the items: Primary Sources are listed first, and Secondary Sources come second, regardless of source type [mix together articles, books, Web sources, etc., into each list] so the final version is in alphabetical order by the first word of each entry. Don’t forget to save this (often!), and be sure you remove all the gray instructional text such as this from your final version. If you need further information or entry examples for other types of sources [video, etc.], please use pointers from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab [OWL for short!] at )

The first seven examples are for books or chapters in a book:

Last Name, First Name. Title of a Book With One Author, Title Underlined or Italicized, With Significant Words Capitalized. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Print.

Highlight this passage and replace it with your annotation. In a critical annotation, you provide a descriptive overview of the source, you tell what useful ideas it contains, and you evaluate the success or reliability of the source. You might also compare or contrast the source with another source on the topic. Notice that in this template, the annotation is indented and single spaced. Make sure all annotations follow this format before you do the entire assignment.

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book in a Second Edition. 2nd ed. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Print.

Highlight this passage and replace it with your annotation. Know that if you try to paste citation information into this template from a Web page [EasyBib or Cite Knight, for example], Word might over-ride this template and try to replicate whatever format appeared on the Web page. This is only one of many annoyingly “helpful” things Word does. The way around it is to copy from the Web page as usual, and select “Paste Special” from the Edit menu. In “Paste Special,” choose “unformatted text,” and you’ll be good to go.

Title of a Book Without an Author, Title Underlined or Italicized. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Print.

Highlight this passage and replace it with your annotation. Notice that the source information section of each entry is double-spaced with 1/2-inch Hanging Indentation for second, third, and all following lines. If you create your own bibliography or works cited document without pasting into this template, you will need to know how to create hanging indentations. Type each entry with one-inch margins—do not hit Enter at all as you type the entry; do hit Enter as you end the entry. Go back and click and drag to select the whole citation entry. Go to the ruler at the top of the document on your screen, and hover the cursor over the bottom “home plate”-shaped tab at the document's left margin. The label “hanging indent” may appear as you hover. Click and drag that one tab 1/2-inch to the right and release. All of your selected text should now begin its first line at the left margin with following lines indented 1/2-inch further to the right. Make sure all annotations follow this format before you complete the entire assignment.

Last Name of First Author, First Name of First Author, and Second (and third, if necessary) Author's Name in Normal Order. Title of Book With Two or Three Authors, Title Underlined or Italicized. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date. Print.

Last Name of First Author, First Name of First Author, et al. Title of Book With More Than Three Authors, Title Underlined or Italicized. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date. Print.

Organization Name. Title of Book With a "Corporate Author," Title Underlined or Italicized. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date. Print.

Author(s). “Title of Article in Quotation Marks.” Title of an Edited Anthology, Underlined or Italicized. Ed. Editor’s Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page numbers of the specific story or essay you're using. Print.

The next five examples are for magazine, newspaper, or professional journal articles (use the last example for articles downloaded or printed from online services such as ProQuest):

“Title of Newspaper or Magazine Article With No Author Listed, Title in Quotation Marks.” Title of Magazine or Newspaper, Underlined or Italicized Day Month Year: page numbers. Print.

Author(s). “Title of Newspaper or Magazine Article in Quotation Marks.” Title of Magazine or Newspaper, Underlined or Italicized Day Month Year: page numbers.

Author(s). “Title of Journal Article in Quotation Marks.” Title of Professional Journal With Continuous Pagination Vol (Year): page numbers. Print.

Author(s). “Title of Journal Article in Quotation Marks.” Title of Professional Journal With Each Issue Paginated Separately Vol.Issue Number (Year): page numbers. Print.

Author's Last name, First name. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Underlined or Italicized Date of publication, volume number and issue number if scholarly: page numbers. Name of database (such as ProQuest) underlined. Subscription service name (UMI for ProQuest articles). Subscribing library and location. Day Month Year of access. Web.

The next three examples are for Web pages. Citing Web pages can be tricky, and these three examples don’t cover all the possibilities. Ask your instructor or a librarian if you are unsure:

Author(s) if Given. Name of Web Page. Date of Posting/ Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (if any). Date You Accessed the Site. Web.

Name of Web Page When No Author is Listed. Date of Posting/ Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (if any). Date You Accessed the Site. Web.

Author(s) if Given. "Title of Specific Web Article." Title of Web Magazine or Publication the Page is a Part Of. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (if any). Date You Accessed the Site. Web.