This document provides instructions for creating an annotated bibliography for a personal project. An annotated bibliography includes a bibliographic entry in MLA format for each source as well as a 4-6 sentence evaluation of the source. It should describe the origin, purpose, value, and limitations of each source to help identify how it can help address the research question. Examples are provided for writing bibliographic entries for different source types such as websites, journals, newspapers, and books. Students are instructed to use an automatic generator to create the bibliographic entries.

1. Personal Project Annotated Bibliography
For your personal project you need to create an annotated bibliography. An annotated
bibliography is an analytical list of sources you are consulting for your personal project.
An Annotated Bibliography consists of two parts:
1) A proper bibliographic entry in MLA, APA, or Chicago/Turabian styles.
2) A 4-6 sentence evaluation of the source.
Personal Project Bibliographic Entry:
Personal Project should be in an MLA format. Although you have been taught in 9th grade that
you should follow the format appropriate for the academic focus of the research project you are
conducting, for the purposes of uniformity, we ask that all Personal Projects be completed using
MLA.
Information you need to collect from a source in order to be prepared to create a
bibliography in the MLA format:
Website TItle of website
Title of page or article you are using
Author of page or article you are using
Creator of website (person or organization)
specific URL
date accessed
name of database
Journal author
title of article
page numbers of article
title of journal
volume and issue number of publication
date of publication
URL
date of access
name of database
Newspaper author
title of article
title of newspaper
place of publication (city of newspaper)
date of publication
volume number
URL
date of access
Book author
title and subtitle

2. editor or translator
edition
volume
place published
publisher
date published
page numbers of chapter/s consulted
Please use an automatic generator web resource like Easy Bib or Citation to create your
bibliography OR see the separate handout on how to create a bibliography and in-text or
footnote citations.
Evaluating a Source:
The goal of an annotated bibliography is to give a brief assessment of a source so that you can
identify its strengths and weaknesses in helping you address a research question. For an
annotated bibliography you want to write a sentence or two analyzing each of the following (you
don’t have to label them):
Origin
● is the author a journalist or a professor? or a professional in the field?
● is it primary or secondary?
● what type of source is it? (i.e., newspaper, book, journal article, website, photograph)
Purpose
● what does the source argue? what point is it trying to make?
Value
● in what ways does this source help you answer your question?
● why is this source valid and reliable (well-known author? well-respected author? expert
on the topic?)
Limitations
● in what ways is this source not helpful in answering your question?
● why is this source not particularly valid or reliable? (bias? inexperienced author? author
who is not an expert on the topic?
Example:
Inquiry Question: To what extent did life improve for African Americans after the Civil War?
Zinn, Howard. ""Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom"" A
People's History of the United States: 1492-2001. New ed. New York: Harper Perennial
Modern Classics, 2005. Print.
Howard Zinn, a renowned historian and social activist, wrote this book to tell
some major stories of history from the perspective of the underdog. A political science
professor at Howard University, Zinn (he’s deceased) argued in this chapter that
economic power and racial oppression worked together to keep African-Americans

3. enslaved prior to the Civil War and to help create systems of oppression after the end of
Reconstruction. This chapter is valuable to this investigation because he is a well-known
historian who provides excellent detail explaining the developments that both helped and
hurt African-Americans. The chapter also uses many well-known historians and primary
sources, making it well-researched. The chapter is limited because Zinn writes from a
socialist perspective, focusing on the ways in which African-Americans were oppressed
economically and blaming capitalism for many of the problems they faced.