How to Write an Annotated Bibliography

Purpose of Annotated Bibliography:

Two purposes:

1) Summarise research

2) Evaluate relevance/usefulness to your project

How to Write an Annotated Bibliography

Structure:1) Cite bibliographical details: Author(s) / Date

/ Title / Publisher / Place of Publication.2) Paraphrase author’s thesis3) Summarise author’s main points4) Evaluate relevance/usefulness of research

for your project

How to Write an Annotated Bibliography

Language:• choose verbs carefully; e.g.,• argues• analyses• claims• considers• suggests

How to Write an Annotated Bibliography

Language:• use evaluative adverbs; e.g.,• Forcefully• Persuasively• Carefully• Rigorously• tentatively

How to Write an Annotated Bibliography

Example: Ashcroft, Blah & Blah (1989), The Empire Writes Back, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.In The Empire Writes Back, Ashcroft et al. argue that in the 1980s a new academic discipline emerged, a discipline they call “postcolonialism”. They argue that postcolonialism uses a wide range of methods to understand colonialism and its effects. This analysis is centred upon understanding how language is used in the colonial context by both coloniser and colonised. This work provides a very useful introduction to the main concerns and methods of postcolonialism.