LibGuides: Criminal Justice: What is an Annotated Bibliography?

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations with an added summary. The citations can be to any resource relevant to your topic and assignment criteria. The summary is a brief (about 150 words) description and evaluation of the resource to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy and quality of the sources you are citing.

Some annotations are merely descriptive, summarizing the authors' qualifications, research methods, and arguments.
Many annotations evaluate the quality of scholarship in a book or article. You might want to consider the logic of authors' arguments, and the quality of their evidence. Your findings can be positive, negative, or mixed.
Your professor might also want you to explain why the source is relevant to your assignment.

CRJ 366 Annotated Bibliography:

Find four to five scholarly sources relevant to your topic
Read and evaluate each resource
Create your bibliography of References
For each citation, write a brief analytical summary which may include:
- How does this resource support your topic?
- Intended audience of resource
- Compare or contrast with your other resources
- Evaluate the author

More Help on Annotated Bibliographies:

Purdue Owl Annotated Bibliography Help
Help for writing and annotated bibliography. Includes examples and a sample annotated bibliography.
The Writing Center @ The University of Wisconsin - Madison
How to Write an Annotated Bibliography

APA Resources on the Web

APA Formatting and Style Guide
Covers all aspects of APA formatting (6th ed.), including the paper itself and references. From The Online Writing Lab (The OWL) at Purdue University.
Citing court cases in APA style
Online research guide on how to cite government documents. From the Cornell University Library.
APA Documentation
Covers all aspects of creating a paper using APA formatting (6th ed.), citations, and reference list. Also provides help with grammar and punctuation. From the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
APA Exposed: Online Tutorial
You can view the entire tutorial or go to a specific portion to answer your current need. (From Harvard University's Graduate School of Education)
Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style
Use this list of common questions about references, punctuation, grammar, and style to get official answers directly from the American Psychological Association itself. For help with specific citation examples, use one of the other sites.

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How to Search for Scholarly Articles

Use the LIBRARY SEARCH BOX (above) to search for scholarly articles.

Type in keywords/phrases.
- Example research question: School-to-prison pipeline as it pertains to youth with mental health and/or developmental disabilities.
- Example keywords to search: school to prison pipeline mental health
Before looking at your results, login to your library account with your WCU email address and password (top right corner).
Narrow your results on the left side bar.
- Under Show Only, click on Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed Journals.
- If needed, refine by date (Tip: you need to click the Refine button).
- Under Source Type, click on Articles.
- Under Subject, click on Show More. Then either click on one subject term OR check off multiple and hover at bottom of column to see green Apply Filter button (Tip: it's hidden until you hover over it).
- Still too many results? Limit by Subject again, change original search terms, or browse through results for additional/different keywords.

Search EBSCO Databases:

Tip: Search these 3 databases at once! Click on the "Choose Databases" link above the search boxes.

Sample APA Annotated Bibliography

Creating an annotated bibliography in APA style

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 6th edition (APA Manual) is kept behind the Research Help Desk near the 3rd floor main entrance.

This example is based on the APA style guide, but your instructor might give you other formatting instructions.

Sample Page: APA-formatted annotated bibliography

Child Poverty in Canada 2

Battle, K. (2007). Child poverty: The evolution and impact of child benefits. In Covell, K., & Howe, R. B. (Eds), A question of commitment: Children's rights in Canada (pp. 21-44). Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Ken Battle draws on his research as an extensively-published policy analyst, and a close study of some government documents, to explain child benefits in Canada. He outlines some fundamental assumptions supporting the belief that all society members should contribute to the upbringing of children. His comparison of Canadian child poverty rates to those in other countries provides a useful wake-up to anyone assuming Canadian society is doing a good job of protecting children from want. He pays particular attention to the National Child Benefit (NCB), arguing that it did not deserve the criticism it received from politicians and journalists. He outlines the NCB’s development, costs, and benefits, including its dollar contribution to a typical recipient’s income. He laments that the Conservative government scaled back the program in favour of the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB), and clearly explains why it is inferior. However, Battle relies too heavily on his own work; he is the sole or primary author of almost half the sources in his bibliography. He could make this work stronger by drawing from the perspectives of others' analyses. However, Battle does offer a valuable source for this essay, because the chapter provides a concise overview of government-funded assistance currently available to parents. This offers context for analyzing the scope and financial reality of child poverty in Canada.

Kerr, D., & Beaujot, R. (2003). Child poverty and family structure in Canada, 1981-1997. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 34(3), 321-335.

Sociology professors Kerr and Beaujot analyze the demographics of impoverished families. Drawing on data from Canada’s annual Survey of Consumer Finances, the authors consider whether each family had one or two parents, the age of single parents, and the number of children in each household. They analyze child poverty rates in light of these demographic factors, as well as larger

Rules! rules! rules!

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.) states the following formatting rules:

The text and the reference list should be double-spaced.
Numbering starts on the title page, at the top right of the page.
Reference list entries must have a hanging indent (to do this in Microsoft Word 2003, click Format, then Paragraph, then Special, and choose Hanging).
There should be 1 inch (2.54 cm) margins all around (top, bottom, left, and right) on each page.
Use Times Roman font, or a similar serif font.
Each paragraph should be indented.