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Annotated Bibliography

An Introduction to Annotated Bibliographies

Descriptive Annotated Bibliographies

A descriptive or informative annotated bibliography is similar to an abstract in that it describes or summarizes a source. It provides a description on why the source is useful or relevant to the topic researched. It may also question an author's arguments or conclusion; however it does not evaluate the author's conclusion or results.

Example of a Descriptive Annotation in APA Format

London, H. (1982). Five myths of the television age. Television quarterly 10, 1, 81-89.

       Herbert London, the Dean of Journalism at New York University and author of several books and articles, explains how television contradicts five commonly believed ideas. He uses specific examples of events seen on television, such as the assassination of John Kennedy, to illustrate his points. His examples have been selected to contradict such truisms as: "seeing is believing"; "a picture is worth a thousand words"; and "satisfaction is its own reward." London uses logical arguments to support his ideas which are his personal opinion. He doesn't refer to any previous works on the topic. London's style and vocabulary would make the article of interest to any reader.