CiteWise

Annotated bibliography examples

Two complete entries for a paper on how students should revise, shown in three styles. Turn on the colour key to see which sentences summarise, evaluate and reflect.

Annotated Bibliography

Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354

This meta-analysis pools hundreds of experiments on the spacing effect and concludes that spreading study sessions over time produces better long-term recall than massed practice, with the ideal gap growing as the delay before the test increases. Its scale and its publication in a leading review journal make it one of the most authoritative sources on the topic, although most included studies used word lists rather than classroom material. It provides the core evidence for my argument that revision timetables should be spread across the term, and its lab-based limits point me toward classroom studies to complete the picture.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in economics, describes two modes of thought: a fast, intuitive “System 1” and a slow, deliberate “System 2.” He draws on decades of experiments with Amos Tversky to show how shortcuts such as anchoring and availability bias everyday judgements. The book is written for a general audience, so it summarises rather than reports studies in detail, and some of the priming research it cites has since failed to replicate, which calls for care when citing those chapters. The chapters on availability explain why students overestimate how well they know material after re-reading, which supports my section on why self-testing feels harder but works better.

What makes these annotations work

  • They open with the source’s main claim, not “This article is about…”.
  • The evaluation is specific: it names the actual strength (scale, venue, author’s expertise) and the actual weakness (word lists, replication problems).
  • The reflection ties back to one research question, and even shows how a limitation changes what the writer will do next.
  • Each is one paragraph of about 80–100 words. Longer briefs simply expand each part.

APA annotated bibliography format notes

APA 7 doesn’t publish a rigid annotated bibliography template, so follow the reference-list rules (hanging indent, double spacing, alphabetical order) and indent the annotation beneath each entry. Titles of articles and books use sentence case.

MLA annotated bibliography format notes

The MLA Handbook recommends indenting annotations 1 inch from the left margin, so they sit half an inch beyond the hanging indent of the entry. Titles use title case; articles go in quotation marks, books and journals in italics.

Build yours with the annotated bibliography builder, which applies these rules and exports to Word, or read the full guide on how to write an annotated bibliography.

Questions students ask

What does an APA annotated bibliography look like?
A centred bold title, then each APA reference with a 0.5-inch hanging indent, followed by an indented paragraph annotation, all double-spaced and ordered alphabetically.
What does an MLA annotated bibliography look like?
A centred title “Annotated Bibliography”, each Works Cited entry with a hanging indent, and the annotation indented 1 inch from the left margin, all double-spaced.
Can I copy these annotations?
No: they describe these specific sources for a specific research question. Use them as models for structure and tone, then write your own about your sources.