Annotated Bibliography
An APA 7 annotated bibliography. Replace the blue placeholders with your own words, and delete the grey notes, the table, the rules box and the checklist before you submit.
Course | [Course number and name] |
Instructor | [Name] |
Due date | [Date] |
Research question | [The question your sources help answer] |
Sources required | [Number] |
Annotation length | [For example, about 150 words] |
Annotation type | [Summary, evaluation, reflection, or all three] |
APA 7 format (Publication Manual, Section 9.51)
Title the list Annotated Bibliography, bold and centered.
Put the entries in alphabetical order by the first author's surname.
Double-space everything, with no blank lines between entries.
Give each reference a 0.5 in. hanging indent.
Start the annotation on the next line and indent the whole paragraph 0.5 in.
If an annotation has a second paragraph, indent its first line a further 0.5 in.
Italicize journal names and volume numbers, and the titles of books, reports and webpages.
No publisher location, no “Retrieved from” before a URL unless you add a retrieval date for a page designed to change, and DOIs as https://doi.org/ links.
List up to 20 authors in a reference; “et al.” is only for in-text citations.
Set the indents and spacing after you export to Word. Your instructor's rules come first.
1 · Journal article
[Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxx]
Summary: [what the source argues or finds, on what evidence, about whom]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, the evidence, what is missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, complicates or gives background to]
When all three moves are written, delete the labels and join them into one paragraph.
See a filled-in entry
Okafor, N. E., & Lindqvist, M. (2022). Summer reading programs and reading achievement in Grades 2–5: A two-district comparison. Journal of Library and Family Literacy, 14(2), 87–104. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
Okafor and Lindqvist compared spring and fall reading scores for 1,240 students in Grades 2–5 in two school districts, one with a library summer program open to every child and one without. Students who completed the program held their spring scores, while similar students in the other district fell by about a tenth of a grade level. It is the most direct evidence on my list, but families chose to join the program, so children who already read at home may be overrepresented; the authors control for earlier test scores, not for reading at home. It is the main evidence in my second section.
An invented source, for the format only. In the exported paper, the journal name and the volume number 14 are in italics.
2 · Book
[Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case, in italics (2nd ed., only if not the first). Publisher. https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxx]
Summary: [what the source argues or finds, on what evidence, about whom]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, the evidence, what is missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, complicates or gives background to]
3 · Chapter in an edited book
[Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter in sentence case. In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of book, in italics (pp. xx–xx). Publisher.]
Summary: [what the source argues or finds, on what evidence, about whom]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, the evidence, what is missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, complicates or gives background to]
4 · Report by an organization
[Organization Name. (Year). Title of report, in italics (Report No. 123, if it has one). Publisher, only if not the organization. URL]
Summary: [what the source argues or finds, on what evidence, about whom]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, the evidence, what is missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, complicates or gives background to]
5 · Webpage
[Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page, in italics. Site Name, unless it is the author. URL]
Summary: [what the source argues or finds, on what evidence, about whom]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, the evidence, what is missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, complicates or gives background to]
Need more entries? Copy an entry, keep the list alphabetical, and delete the grey type labels. Grouping by theme? Add a heading for each theme and keep the entries alphabetical within it.
Before you submit
Every source on the list helps answer the research question
The entries are in alphabetical order by the first author's surname
Every reference has all its authors, the year, the title, the source and a DOI or URL
Article, chapter and book titles are in sentence case; journal names are in title case
Journal names, volume numbers and the titles of books, reports and webpages are in italics
Each annotation says what the source claims, how far to trust it and how you will use it
The annotations are in your own words and within the word limit
After export: hanging indents, 0.5 in. annotation indents and double spacing are set
The title page and page numbers follow the APA student format, or your instructor's rules
The grey notes, the table, the rules box and this checklist are deleted