Annotated Bibliography
An MLA 9 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.
Name | [Your name] |
Instructor | [Instructor's name] |
Course | [Course name or number] |
Date | [Day Month Year, such as 10 November 2026] |
Research question | [The question your sources help answer] |
Sources required | [Number] |
Annotation length | [For example, 100 to 150 words] |
Annotation form | [Concise phrases or full sentences] |
In the exported paper, your name, the instructor, the course and the date go at the top left of page 1, each on its own line, above the centered title. Delete the rest of the table.
MLA 9 format
Title the list Annotated Bibliography or Annotated List of Works Cited, centered, with no italics or quotation marks.
Put the entries in alphabetical order by their first word, usually the author's last name.
Double-space everything, with no blank lines between entries.
Give each entry a 0.5 in. hanging indent.
Start each annotation on a new line and indent the whole annotation 1 in. from the left margin.
Write in concise phrases or in full sentences, keep to one form for the whole list, and keep each annotation to about a paragraph.
Italicize the titles of books, journals, websites and databases; put the titles of articles, essays, stories and poems in quotation marks.
Leave https:// off URLs, but write DOIs as https://doi.org/ links.
Abbreviate months longer than four letters (Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.).
Set the indents, the italics and the header (your last name and the page number, top right) after you export to Word. Your instructor's rules come first.
1 · Primary text: a story or poem on a website
[Last Name, First Name. “Title of Story or Poem.” Year first published. Title of Website, in italics, Publisher, URL without https://. Accessed Day Mon. Year.]
What it is: [what happens or what it says, in two or three sentences]
Edition: [which version or edition you quote, and why]
Use: [the passages or features you analyze, and what your paper argues about them]
When the three lines are written, delete the labels and join them into one paragraph.
See a filled-in entry
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” 1894. KateChopin.org, Kate Chopin International Society, www.katechopin.org/story-hour/. Accessed 10 Nov. 2026.
The story covers the hour after Louise Mallard hears that her husband has been killed in a railroad disaster: grief, then a joy she can only whisper (“free, free, free!”), then his return through the front door, unhurt, and her death, which the doctors put down to “joy that kills.” It first appeared in Vogue in December 1894 as “The Dream of an Hour.” This online text includes two changes from an 1895 reprint, so I quote it throughout and say so in a note. I analyze the view from the window, the paragraph on “a private will,” and the last line.
In the exported paper, KateChopin.org and Vogue are in italics. A primary text's annotation names the version you quote and the passages you analyze; it doesn't judge the author.
2 · Book by one author
[Last Name, First Name. Title of Book, in italics. Publisher, Year.]
Summary: [the argument or findings, and the evidence behind them]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, what is thin or missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, opposes or gives background to]
3 · Journal article in a database
[Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, in italics, vol. #, no. #, Season or Month Year, pp. xx-xx. Name of Database, in italics, URL or permalink.]
Summary: [the argument or findings, and the evidence behind them]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, what is thin or missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, opposes or gives background to]
4 · Essay, story or poem in an edited collection
[Last Name, First Name. “Title of Work.” Title of Collection, in italics, edited by First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year, pp. xx-xx.]
Summary: [the argument or findings, and the evidence behind them]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, what is thin or missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, opposes or gives background to]
5 · Page on a website
[Last Name, First Name. “Title of Page.” Title of Website, in italics, Publisher, Day Mon. Year, URL without https://.]
Summary: [the argument or findings, and the evidence behind them]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, what is thin or missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, opposes or gives background to]
6 · Article by three or more authors, with a DOI
[Last Name, First Name, et al. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, in italics, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. xx-xx, https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxxx.]
Summary: [the argument or findings, and the evidence behind them]
Evaluation: [how far to trust it: who wrote it, the method, what is thin or missing]
Use: [which part of your paper it supports, opposes or gives background to]
Need more entries? Copy one, keep the list alphabetical, and delete the grey type labels. Leave out any element a source doesn't have; journals and magazines take no publisher.
Before you submit
Every source on the list helps answer the research question
The entries are in alphabetical order by their first word
Every entry has its core elements in MLA order, with the right punctuation
Names appear as the sources print them, last name first; three or more authors become the first author and et al.
Titles of books, journals, websites and databases are in italics; shorter works are in quotation marks
Long month names are abbreviated, URLs have no https://, and DOIs start with https://doi.org/
Each annotation says what the source is, how far to trust it and how you will use it
Every annotation uses the same form, phrases or sentences, and stays within the length
After export: hanging indents, 1 in. annotation indents, double spacing and the header are set
The grey notes, the table, the rules box and this checklist are deleted