COMM 495: Communication Studies Capstone Course

What is an annotation?

An annotation is more than just a brief summary of an article, book, website or other type of publication. An annotation should give enough information to make a reader decide whether to read the complete work. In other words, if the reader were exploring the same topic as you, is this material useful and if so, why?

How is an annotation different from an abstract?

While an abstract also summarizes an article, book, website or other type of publication, it is purely descriptive. An annotation will not only describe the source, but also explain how that source supports your thesis. Annotations can be evaluative and critical. 

What is an annotated bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources (like a reference list). It differs from a straightforward bibliography in that each reference is followed by a paragraph length annotation, usually 100–200 words in length.

An analytical or critical annotation not only summarizes the material, it analyzes what is being said. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of what is presented as well as describing the applicability of the author's conclusions to the research being conducted.

For example:

Breeding evil. (2005, August 6). Economist, 376(8438), 9. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com

This editorial from the Economist describes the controversy surrounding video games and the effect they have on people who use them. The article points out that most critics of gaming are people over 40 and it is an issue of age not of the games themselves. While the author briefly mentions studies done around the issue of violence and gaming, he does not go into enough depth for the reader to truly know the range of studies that have actually been done in this area, other than to take his word that the research is unsatisfactory. The author of this article stresses the age factor over violence as the real reason for opposition to video games and stresses the good gaming has done in most areas of human life. This article is a good resource for those wanting to begin to explore the controversy surrounding video games, however for anyone doing serious research, one should actually examine some of the research studies that have been done in this area rather than simply take the author's word that opposition to video games is simply due to an issue of generational divide.

To get started

Now you are ready to begin writing your own annotated bibliography.

• Choose your sources Before writing your annotated bibliography, you must choose your sources. You will need to locate at least eight sources for your annotated bibliography memo, from at least 3 different source types. No more than two of your sources can be from interviews. 
• Review the items Review the actual items and choose those that provide a wide variety of perspectives on your topic. Article abstracts are helpful in this process.
• Write the citation and annotation When writing your annotation, the complete citation should always come first and the annotation follows. Depending on the type of annotated bibliography you are writing, you will want to include:
  • The purpose of the work
  • A summary of its content
  • Information about the author(s)
  • Its relevance to the topic