You’re on your way to the end of the year and very close graduate from university but here’s one last thing to be done before you can get your degree…

A THESIS!

Writing a Thesis or Dissertation could be very tiring work but it can’t be ignored or be skipped. If you want that degree you got to work for it.

Before you even start writing your thesis or dissertation, you have to choose the topic and then research it. But do you just read stuff and write down and then submit it?

Nope, that’s not how we do it.

Even researching for your thesis or dissertation should be done in a much-disciplined manner and that’s called Bibliography.

And if you know what bibliography is but still don’t know how to write an annotated bibliography, don’t worry we have got you covered.

What Is Bibliography?

Don’t panic if bibliography sounds like an alien word to you. Let us explain what is bibliography in the easiest way.

When you start to research for your thesis, you go through a number of materials like books, articles and other resources that you later cite in your thesis.

How do you remember everything that you have read?

Would you carry around each book, article, and link with you when you submit your thesis to show the reader or checker the references you have used in your research papers?

This is where the bibliography comes into the picture. You have to note down all of the sources that you have used for your research which includes both, the sources you have cited in your thesis and also the sources you did not.

What does bibliography include?

List of all the citations in your thesis.
Names of the authors you have cited.
The page number of the reference you have cited.
Name of the book or journal you have cited.

Why bibliography is important:

It saves you time when you write your thesis as you have all the information written in front of you.
If not done, your thesis will be considered plagiarism i.e. it will be rejected as your research will be considered as stealing someone else’s work without proper crediting.

Bibliography is very important as without it, you can’t even start writing a thesis properly.

Is Bibliography Same as Referencing: Bibliography vs Reference List

If you are thinking that bibliography is a fancy word for a reference list, then you have got it wrong. Have a look at this quick Bibliography vs Reference list comparison to make your confusion go away!

In short, a reference list would only include sources that have been cited in your thesis or dissertation but bibliography includes reference to everything including what you didn’t cite and the reason behind it if necessary to explain and would also include mentioning every single source you used in your research paper.

What is a Bibliography Page?

A bibliography page is a very important part of your thesis or research paper. It is usually one of the last chapters of your thesis and it helps your research paper or thesis in many ways:

Gets the authors acknowledged and increase the credibility of your research
Let’s your reader know more about your research topic
Eliminates the chances of your research paper being panelized for plagiarism

How Does a Bibliography Page Looks Like?

(Image Source: Google Images)

As you can see, a bibliography page does not have annotations. It has a working bibliography that has references to all the sources being used and cited in research.

Some Bibliography Examples for You!

Now you have the clear concept of what bibliography is so let us give you some bibliography examples to make sure you know how to start doing bibliography for your research papers.

Text Box: Author last name, first name. “Chapter title.” In Book Title, edited or translated by Editor first name last name, page range. Place of publication: Publisher, Year. Here’s a sample for how bibliography entries should be written

Now you have the format, let’s see how to write an actual bibliography entry.

Another one of the bibliography examples which is a bit different, let’s check it out

Well, that was different, wasn’t it? It is an annotated bibliography and it’s more powerful and helpful for you while writing and presenting your thesis.

Before we explain you how to write an annotated bibliography, let us give a little overview of the types of bibliography

Types of Bibliography

Bibliography mainly has 3 formats/types which are:

Enumerative Bibliography

An enumerative bibliography is the most common type used by students and professional writers with the format in chronological order of

Author
Subject
Date or some other scheme.

The items they list share a common theme such as topic, language or time. You can see an example of enumerative bibliography down here

Analytical Bibliography

Analytical bibliography is used by writers who critically study books. Analytical bibliographies include:

information about printers and booksellers
descriptions of paper and binding
Discussions of issues that unfolded as the book evolved from a manuscript to a published book.

Here is an example of an analytical bibliography:

Annotated Bibliography

While analytical bibliography is also annotated but it focuses on critical analysis only while annotated bibliography can be used on any genre or nature of research or topic. In an Annotated bibliography, the sources are listed in alphabetical order and annotations which are the details and notes of the citation and research references to help the reader understand the context easily.

How To Write Annotated Bibliography?

Annotated bibliography includes a summary (up to 150 words) that simplify explains the following things:

The purpose of the work cited.
The shortcomings of the work cited.
Explains if there are any biases in the cited work.
The credibility of the source used.
Your thoughts on the research information.

Now you know have understood the concept of annotated bibliography, writing one is going to be very easy for you.

What are the Annotated Bibliography Topics?

Annotated bibliography has different types or methods to write, which are applied according to the topics and subjects. Two of the types we will talk about with examples are:

MLA: used for humanities thesis and assignments.
APA: used for education, psychology, and political sciences.

Here’s an example for MLA annotated bibliography:

As you can see that it has three paragraphs. The first one is a summary, second is an evaluation of the text, and last is the reflection on its applicability to his/her own research.

And here is an example of APA Annotated Bibliography:

The annotation above summarizes and assesses the book in the citation. Covering the main point of work, the first paragraph summarizes the author’s project while the second paragraph points out and evaluates the impact and its presentation and method.

How to Indent Bibliography?

Now you know how to write an annotated bibliography with all the different examples and samples. But how do you physically input it?

We’d prefer you to write it using Microsoft Word and don’t get into other messy software.

To indent text bibliography into format i.e. if you want to turn your text into the respective format you don’t need to use any fancy software or pay someone to do that. It’s very easy actually, just select the text with cursor and press Ctrl + T to indent that line or paragraph quickly.

After teaching you how to indent bibliography, we don’t think you would need any more help! Good luck with your writing!