"How are annotated bibliographies formatted in APA?"

Annotated Bibliography

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

"An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited" (Engle, n.d.). APA defines an annotated bibliography as, "a type of student paper in which reference list entries are followed by short descriptions of the work called annotations. Annotated bibliographies can also constitute one element of a research paper in fields that require bibliographies rather than reference lists." The APA Publication Manual further notes that, "it is not necessary to cite the work being annotated in the annotation because the origin of the information is clear through context. However, do include in-text citations (see Chapter 8) if you refer to multiple works within an annotation to clarify the source" (APA, 2020, p.307).