Annotated Bibliography Examples in APA and MLA, and How to Write One

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources in which each citation is followed by a short paragraph, called an annotation, that describes and evaluates the source. Its job is to show what each source says, how much you can trust it and how it fits your research.

This page explains how to write an annotation, then gives full examples in APA 7 and MLA 9, each with three annotations from different fields, so you can see how the format changes from one style to the other.

TL;DR

• Each entry is a full citation followed by an annotation, usually about 150 words.

• A good annotation summarizes the source, evaluates it and says how you will use it.

• APA indents the annotation 0.5 inch, while MLA indents it one inch, and entries usually go in alphabetical order.

• The annotation has to be your own reading and judgment, so write it yourself.

What kinds of annotations are there?

Annotations usually come in three kinds. A descriptive annotation summarizes what the source covers. An evaluative annotation also judges it, looking at the author's authority, the quality of the evidence and any limitations. A reflective annotation explains how the source fits your own project. Most assignments ask for a mix of all three, and the examples below combine them, but check what your instructor wants before you start.

How do you write an annotation?

Writing an annotation is easier if you take notes while you read, rather than trying to remember the source afterward. Then work through four steps.

1. Cite the source. Format the reference in the style you need. The AnswerThis APA citation generator and MLA citation generator can build it from a DOI or the source details, which leaves you free to focus on the annotation. Check each reference against the source before you add it.

2. Summarize. In two or three sentences, state the source's main argument or finding and how the author reached it.

3. Evaluate. Say how strong the evidence is, who the author is, and what the source leaves out or gets wrong.

4. Say how you will use it. Explain what the source adds to your research, or how it differs from your other sources.

As for length, Cornell University Library's guide describes an annotation as a brief paragraph of usually about 150 words. Your instructor's limit comes first, and the examples below run a little shorter, at about 100 words each.

APA annotated bibliography example

APA covers annotated bibliographies in section 9.51 of its Publication Manual. Unless your instructor says otherwise:

• List the references in alphabetical order, formatted exactly as in a reference list, with a 0.5-inch hanging indent.

• Start each annotation on a new line below its reference and indent the whole annotation 0.5 inch from the left margin, the way you would format a block quotation.

• If an annotation runs to more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each later paragraph a further 0.5 inch.

• Double-space the whole page, as in any APA paper.

Here is an example on what helps college students learn, with sources from biology education, sleep medicine and psychology.

Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410–8415. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111

Freeman and colleagues combined the results of 225 studies comparing traditional lecturing with active learning in undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses. On average, exam scores were about 6% higher under active learning, and students in lecture-based classes were 1.5 times more likely to fail. The results held across disciplines and class sizes, with the largest effects in small classes, and the authors' checks suggest they are not due to publication bias. Because the study pools many different active learning methods, it says less about which method to choose. I will use it to support my argument that course design affects student performance.

Hershner, S. D., & Chervin, R. D. (2014). Causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students. Nature and Science of Sleep, 6, 73–84. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S62907

This review summarizes research on how much college students sleep, why they sleep poorly and what it costs them. The authors report that about half of college students experience daytime sleepiness and 70% get insufficient sleep, and they link sleep loss to lower grade point averages, a higher risk of academic failure, poorer mood and a higher risk of car accidents. They also review interventions such as sleep education classes, online programs, naps and later class times. As a narrative review it covers a wide range of studies without weighing them systematically, so I will check key figures against the original research. It adds a health factor that study-skills research often leaves out.

Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581

In three experiments, Mueller and Oppenheimer found that students who took lecture notes on laptops did worse on conceptual questions than students who wrote notes by hand. Laptop users tended to copy the lecture word for word, and the authors argue that this shallower processing hurt their learning. The study is widely cited, but a later replication did not find a consistent difference between the groups (Morehead et al., 2019), so I will present it as an influential but contested finding. It still supports my point that how students process information matters more than how much they record.

MLA annotated bibliography example

The MLA Style Center suggests titling the list Annotated Bibliography or Annotated List of Works Cited, and says annotations can be written as phrases or full sentences. In MLA 9:

• Format each entry as you would in a works-cited list, with a half-inch hanging indent, and list entries alphabetically.

• Start the annotation on the line after the entry and indent it one inch from the left margin, as the MLA Handbook (section 5.132) describes.

• Double-space throughout, and keep each annotation to one paragraph unless your instructor asks for more.

Here is an example on how stories and images shape group identity, with sources from literary criticism, history and film studies.

Achebe, Chinua. “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness.” The Massachusetts Review, vol. 57, no. 1, 2016, pp. 14-27. https://doi.org/10.1353/mar.2016.0003.

Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, argues that Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness presents Africa as “the other world,” a backdrop that makes Europe look civilized, and denies its African characters full humanity, even the power of speech. He concludes that a novel that questions the humanity of Black people cannot be called great art, however skilled its writing. First given as a lecture in 1975, the essay changed how critics read the novella and drew strong replies, so it works best read alongside a defense of Conrad. For my paper, it shows how a widely taught text can shape readers' picture of a people and a place.

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised ed., Verso, 2006.

Anderson defines the nation as an “imagined political community,” imagined because its members will never meet most of their fellow members, yet still feel bound to them. He traces nationalism to the rise of print capitalism, arguing that newspapers and novels printed in shared languages let readers picture themselves as one community. The book ranges across Europe, the Americas and Southeast Asia, which makes it broad but sometimes thin on individual cases, and critics such as Partha Chatterjee have questioned how well it explains anticolonial nationalism. It gives my paper its central idea, that shared texts help create shared identities.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen, vol. 16, no. 3, 1975, pp. 6-18. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/16.3.6.

Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, Mulvey argues that classical Hollywood film is organized around a male point of view, in which the camera, the male characters and the audience all look at women as objects to be looked at. She sees this structure as the source of cinema's visual pleasure and calls for filmmaking that breaks it. The essay introduced the idea of the “male gaze” and is still a starting point for feminist film criticism, though later critics argue that it assumes a male viewer and overlooks how women, queer and Black audiences watch. I will use it to analyze which groups films let us see and which do the seeing.

Annotated bibliography vs literature review

The two are easy to confuse because both deal with sources. The difference is that an annotated bibliography treats each source on its own, while a literature review connects them.

An annotated bibliography is often a step toward a literature review. When you are ready for that step, our literature review writing guide shows how to turn sources into synthesis.

What are the most common annotated bibliography mistakes?

• Copying the abstract. An abstract only describes the source, and pasting or lightly rewording it can count as plagiarism.

• Leaving out the evaluation. A summary on its own tells your reader what the source says, but not whether to trust it.

• Putting entries in the wrong order. APA lists entries alphabetically by the first author's surname, and so do most MLA assignments, although MLA also allows ordering by date or subject.

• Formatting the annotation like the reference. The reference gets a hanging indent, while the annotation is indented as a block.

FAQs

How long should an annotation be?

Usually about 150 words, according to Cornell's guide, but follow your instructor's limit. Short descriptive annotations can be a few sentences, while evaluative ones need room to judge the source.

Can I use AI to write my annotations?

An annotation is meant to show your own reading and judgment, so write it yourself. A citation generator can format the reference above it, but it cannot read the source for you.

Can I use “I” in an annotation?

Often, yes, especially in the sentences about how you will use a source. APA Style allows the first person when you describe your own work, but some instructors prefer the third person, so check first.

How is an annotation different from an abstract?

An abstract, usually written by the author, only describes the source. An annotation is written by you and both describes and evaluates it, which is why copying the abstract does not count as annotating.

How is an annotated bibliography different from a reference list?

A reference list or works-cited page lists the sources you cited in a paper. An annotated bibliography lists sources you have read and adds a paragraph about each one.

When your sources are ready, format each reference with the APA citation generator or MLA citation generator, then write each annotation in your own words.