Making an Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list of all the historical sources used in your research project. It also includes a short description of each source.

What is an annotated bibliography?

My teacher, Mr. Lexington, spent a whole class period talking about how to make a bibliography and an annotated bibliography. He explained that every research project needs a bibliography.

A bibliography is a list of all the sources you used in your research. Mr. Lexington reminded us that citing sources is an important part of doing research.

Let's take a look at my notes. Click through each note to learn more about bibliographies and annotated bibliographies.

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Class Notes - Bibliographies and Annotated Bibliographies

Bibliographies should have all the important information about a source, like title, author, publisher, and publication date.

Different kinds of sources need different information. For example, a web site citation must have the web address in the bibliography.

An annotated bibliography is a bibliography with details about how the sources were important to your research. Big projects like National History Day need annotated bibliographies.

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Mr. Lexington says we should write our bibliographies and annotated bibliographies in a specific way. He wants us to use Chicago style. The information has to be in order and in a certain way. Other teachers might use different styles, like MLA (Modern Language Association) style.

I’m working on an annotated bibliography for my National History Day project about Alexander Hamilton. He is famous because he was a leader during the American Revolution and helped set up America’s new government. His face is on the $10 bill.

This is one of the citations for my Alexander Hamilton annotated bibliography. I wrote it in Chicago style. Mr. Lexington says there are websites that help make your bibliography, but it helps to understand all the different parts.

Move over each part of my annotated bibliography below. Click the blue text to learn more about the Chicago style.

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Research Tip