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CSU Learning Skills: your link to success
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Find Self-help Resources at:
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ces
Academic writing
Writing an annotated bibliography
Students are often required to prepare an annotated
bibliography. Annotate means to ‘make a note’, and
biblio refers to ‘book’. In the 21
st
century students consult much more but still including books:
e.g.
websites, journals (hardcopy and electronic), newspapers and so
on. Simply stated, an annotated
bibliography is a list of sources or citations with a brief
evaluative summary (annotation) about each source.
Its purpose is to describe and evaluate the source text in a way
that allows the reader to decide whether or
not to read the work itself.
Terminology

Source whatever material you have used for your topic; for
example,
journal articles, electronic sources, books or chapters of books
Citation gives the precise bibliographical information needed to
locate
the material; it is the same as a list of references and is placed
in alphabetical order
Annotation follows each citation, and is a note that explains,
describes
and/or evaluates the cited source. Annotations are normally no
more than 50 to 150 words
The purpose of an annotated bibliography
An annotated bibliography is not a simple summary of each
source text. Annotations are descriptive and
critical, with the aim of informing the reader of the relevance,
accuracy, and quality of the sources (books,
journal articles, etc) cited. In general the annotation is to
inform. Specific purposes may be to:
review the literature on a particular subject
illustrate the quality of your research
provide examples of sources available
describe other items on a topic that may be of interest to the
reader
explore the subject for further research.

How to write the annotation
1. Locate and record citations to books, periodicals, and
documents that may contain useful
information and ideas on your topic.
2. Cite the book, article or document, using the appropriate
referencing style. At CSU this is usually
the APA style. For example:
Jones, B. (2008). Colonial Paintings in NSW Art Galleries.
Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
3. State the authority or background of the author.
4. Comment on the intended audience and degree of reading
difficulty.
5. Explain the main purpose of the text.
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6. Identify the main points of the text.
7. Clarify the standpoint of the author in relation to his/her
thesis or theme.
8. Explain how this text adds to a fuller understanding of your
topic.
9. Add critical comment.
10. Point out any relation or comparisons to other texts in the
bibliography.
11. Conclude with a summary comment.
Annotations usually do two things – describe and evaluate.
Unless directed otherwise by your assignment
task, write a concise (brief and clear) annotation that:
summarises the item (e.g. journal article); this will be
descriptive and objective;
evaluates/critiques the source; this will be subjective;
include one or more sentences that:
- evaluate the authority or background of the author;
- comment on the intended audience;
- compare or contrast this work with another you have cited; or
- explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic.
Recall that you are writing an annotation – a brief account of a

source – so write concisely. Do not write
long, descriptive, or wordy sentences.
How to read the text
1. Read actively; read critically.
2. Enter into a dialogue with the author.
3. Identify statements or conclusions where you might question
the author’s assertions, evidence or
method.
4. Write an outline or draw a concept map to make a summary
of the piece of writing.
Critical questions you will want to ask yourself when evaluating
the source might include:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the source?
What is the main argument and is it fully supported with
evidence or examples?
Is the source up-to-date?
Is the subject dealt with fully and accurately, or is it treated
superficially? Has the author omitted to
deal with certain aspects of the topic? In other words: is it
comprehensive?
Is the source limited in any way - by time, place, sample size
etc?
Are there any special features? How is the source organised?

What conclusions has the author made? Are they valid?
Is the argument contentious or controversial? If yes, how does
the author justify her stance and
refute alternatives?
How useful is the source? For whom?
How is the source biased?
Has the author adopted a particular theoretical perspective? Do
implicit assumptions underlie the
work?
How credible is this source? Is this article from a highly
respected professional journal or is it
posted on the web by a narrow interest group?
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Example annotations
The following examples are taken from the websites listed
below. The word count has been included to
give you an idea of how it is possible to describe and evaluate a
source in few words. You may need to refer
to the list of critical questions above to assist you if you are
required to write a longer annotation.
Example 1 (62 words)
Hart, C.& A. Pilling. (1960). The Tiwi of North Australia. New
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
This is the standard monograph on the Tiwi comprising the
earlier work of Hart on the ceremonies, social
organisation, economic system and daily life of this Aboriginal
people, and the more recent description of
the Tiwi in the 1960s by Pilling. It is particularly useful in
providing an insight into the various forms of social
control which operate in an island community.
This annotation clarifies the scope of the work, comments on its
value as a source and its place in the
literature, and emphasises its particular relevance for this
writer.
Stoddart, W.S. (1972). Art and Architecture in Medieval France.
New York: Harper & Row.
This text explores the history of Romanesque and Gothic art,
with emphasis on the latter period. It is
especially useful for its discussion of architectural techniques.

Also included is an analysis of past
scholarship of the periods, which was relevant to t he question’s
focus on the interpretation of the word
‘Romanesque’. However, much of the discussion is outdated,
and its overview of the scholarship needed to
be compared with the related material in Calkins.
This annotation clarifies the scope of the book, its usefulness
and relevance to the topic, and compares it
with another source on the same topic.
Stoddart, WS 1972, Art and Architecture in Medieval France,
Harper & Row, New York.
A history of medieval art and architecture. An informative and
useful book.
This is a very poor annotation. Apart from not being in APA
style it is too brief, not evaluative and simply
repeats obvious information from the book’s title.
Note the use of first person in the next two examples. This is
not common practice but some assignments
may allow this.
Keefe, F.J. (1996). Pain in arthritis and musculoskeletal
disorders. Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical
Therapy, 2, 279-290.
I got all the facts about exercising with arthritis and the
different types of exercise from this source. The

author is very readable and includes a detailed bibliography.
The expression would not be considered scholarly. The reviewer
has however attempted to inform the
reader of the content and relevance of the content to the task,
and to evaluate the readability of the text
and extent of supporting evidence. The annotation is however
likely to be considered too short (28 words)
for an academic assignment.
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Sewell, W. (1989). Weaving a program: Literate programming
in WEB. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Sewell explains the code language within these pages including
certain lines of code as examples. One
useful idea that Sewell uses is to explain characters and how
they work in the programming of a Web Page.
He also goes through and describes how to make lists and a title
section. This will be very useful because all

Web Pages have a title section. This author also introduces
Pascal which I am not sure I will include in my
manual but after I read more about it I can decide whether this
will be helpful to future users. This book
will not be the basis of my manual but will add some key
points, which are described above.
This is an informative annotation. Information is provided about
the overall content of the source including
special features. The annotation contains a description of the
source but also an evaluation of the
usefulness of the source to others and to the writer of the
review.
Goldschneider, F. K., Waite, L. J., & Witsberger, C. (1986).
Non-family living and the erosion of traditional
family orientations among young adults. American Sociological
Review, 51, 541-554.
The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown
University, use data from the National
Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to test
their hypothesis that non-family living by
young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans, and
expectations, moving them away from their belief in
traditional sex roles. They find their hypothesis strongly
supported in young females, while the effects were
fewer in studies of young males. Increasing the time away from
parents before marrying increased
individualism, self-sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about
families. In contrast, an earlier study by
Williams cited below shows no significant gender differences in
sex role attitudes as a result of non-family
living.

This annotation also provides a comprehensive summary of the
article and signals that the findings do not
support the findings of an earlier study.
Additional web resources
The following websites provide more detailed information and
have been used as a basis for the writing of
this guide. You can google other sites by typing ‘annotated
bibliography’ as the search term, but try to
ensure the sites you use are reliable sites.
Annotated Bibliographies: The OWL at Purdue University
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
Annotated Bibliographies: UW-Madison Writing Centre
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/AnnotatedBibliography.
html
Annotated Bibliography: The Learning Centre, UNSW
http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/annotated_bib.html
Writing an annotated bibliography: Learning Connection,
University of South Australia
http://www.unisa.edu.au/ltu/students/study/referencing/bibliogr
aphy.asp
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/614/01/
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/AnnotatedBibliography.
html
http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/annotated_bib.html

http://www.unisa.edu.au/ltu/students/study/referencing/bibliogr
aphy.asp
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succesWriting an annotated bibliography The purpose of an
annotated bibliography How to write the annotation How to
read the text Example 1 (62 words) Example 2 (75 words)
Example 3 (12 words) Example 4 (28 words) Example 5 (118
words) Example 6 (110 words) Additional web resources
Security and Privacy Issues in Cloud and Fog Domain
Student Name – Student ID
Masters in IT – Networking
[email protected]
ABSTRACT – 300-400 words- What? (50 words). Discuss the
issues in both the cloud and the fog domain. The issues in the
cloud domain include .... The issues in the fog domain
include... The research assignment focusses on x, y and z.
Why (Importance)
Keywords— cloud, fog, etc (10 marks)
(This is just a help file, your assignment subtopics would
change depending on your topic)
1. INTRODUCTION (15 marks)
Two to three paragraphs (1 page)
Section 1. Background. ... Section 2. ... Section 3 etc
2. Background/Literature Review (3 pages)
(40 marks)
Literature review (Background studies)
2.1 Cloud Domain (example only)
2.1.1 Hidden Channel Attack

1 paragraph with diagrams where possible
2.1.2 Data Plane Attack
2.1.3 Control Plane Attack
2.2 Fog Domain
2.2.1 Authentication and Trust Issues
3. SOLUTIONS/FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS (Upto 2
pages) (10 marks)
3.1 abc
3.2 def
3.3 xyz
4. Future Research (5 marks)
5. Advantages/Disadvantages (Benefits or challenges of
findings or methods used) (5 marks)
6. Conclusion (5 marks)
7. References and Presentation (10 marks)
APA6 referencing
A. Page Layout
Short paper. Your paper must use a page size corresponding to
A4 which is 210mm (8.27") wide and 297mm (11.69") long.
The margins must be set as follows:
· Top = 19mm (0.75")
· Bottom = 43mm (1.69")

· Left = Right = 14.32mm (0.56")
Your paper must be in a two-column format with a space of
4.22mm (0.17") between columns.
All paragraphs must be indented. All paragraphs must be
justified, i.e. both left-justified and right-justified.
B. Text Font of Entire Document
The entire document should be in Times New Roman or Times
font. Type 3 fonts must NOT be used. Other font types may be
used if needed for special purposes.
Recommended font sizes are shown in Table 1.
C. Title and Author Details
Title must be in 24pt Regular font. Author name must be in
11pt Regular font. Author affiliation must be in 10pt Italic.
Email address must be in 9pt Courier Regular font.
TABLE I
Font Sizes for Papers
Font Size
Appearance (in Time New Roman or Times)
Regular
Bold
Italic
8
table caption (in Small Caps),
figure caption,

reference item
reference item (partial)
9
author email address (in Courier),
cell in a table
abstract body
abstract heading (also in Bold)
10
level-1 heading (in Small Caps),
paragraph
level-2 heading,
level-3 heading,
author affiliation
11
author name
24
title
All title and author details must be in single-column format and
must be centred.
Every word in a title must be capitalised except for short minor
words such as “a”, “an”, “and”, “as”, “at”, “by”, “for”, “from”,
“if”, “in”, “into”, “on”, “or”, “of”, “the”, “to”, “with”.
Author details must not show any professional title (e.g.
Managing Director), any academic title (e.g. Dr.) or any

membership of any professional organization (e.g. Senior
Member IEEE).
To avoid confusion, the family name must be written as the last
part of each author name (e.g. John A.K. Smith).
D. Content
The abstract should give a clear indication of the objectives,
scope, results and conclusion of your work. It is recommended
to have at least five references.
E. Figures and Tables
One figure and one table can be included in your short paper.
Figures and tables must be centred in the column. Large figures
and tables may span across both columns. Any table or figure
that takes up more than 1 column width must be positioned
either at the top or at the bottom of the page.
Graphics may be full colour. All colours will be retained on the
PDF. Graphics must not use stipple fill patterns because they
may not be reproduced properly. Please use only SOLID FILL
colours which contrast well both on screen and on a black-and-
white hardcopy, as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 A sample line graph using colours which contrast well
both on screen and on a black-and-white hardcopy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Original version of this template was provided by courtesy of
Causal Productions (http://www.causalproductions.com). Most
of the formatting instructions in this document have been
compiled by Causal Productions from the IEEE LaTeX style

files, and modified to suit this assignment.
REFERENCES APA6 Referencing Format with in-text citations
- See the CSU Manual and Tool at:
(http://student.csu.edu.au/library/integrity)
List all bibliographical references in 9-point Times New
Roman, single-spaced, at the end of your paper in alphabetical
order. When cited in-text, enclose in round brackets eg (Jacobs
and Bean, 1963, p. 271).
Websites can be cited (Ogilvie, n.d., para. 5), where n.d. means
"no date" if it can't be found. If an author can't be found either
(“Effects of Global Warming,” n.d., para. 3), then just use the
title. Technical reports (NSW Department of Health, 2013, para.
2) should also be referenced.
All references must have in-text citations, and all in-text
citations must appear in the reference list.
REFERENCES
Buxton, L. (2017). Ditching deficit thinking: Changing to a
culture of high expectations. Issues in Educational Research,
27(2), 198–214.
Effects of global warming on whales. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.stopwhaling.org/site/c.foJNIZOyEnH/b.2660179/k.B
BA
7/Stop_Whaling__Effects_of_Global_Warming_on_Whales__IF
A W_US.htm
MacCulloch, D. (1996). Thomas Cranmer: A life. New Haven:
Yale University Press.
Maxwell, J. C. (1892) A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism,
3rd ed., vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon, pp.68–73.
NSW Department of Health. (2013). Why your baby needs to
quit smoking [Fact sheet]. Retrieved from
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/tobacco /Publications/baby-
needs-you -to-quit.pdf

Ogilvie, D. (n.d.). Why I don’t eat honey. In Why be vegan.
Retrieved from http://www.vegetarianvictoria.org.au/

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