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Loyola University Chicago Libraries

Annotated Bibliographies

This page includes basic guidelines and examples from MLA, APA, and Chicago citation styles. Please follow your instructor's requirements above all.

Modern Language Association (MLA) 9th Edition

The following information comes from MLA 9th Edition chapter 5.132 (page 226 in the print edition).

  • Your source should be formatted how it would appear in a works cited list.
  • Annotations should be indented one inch (as opposed to the half-inch hanging indent used in the citation itself).
  • Generally, annotations should be one paragraph.

Example, from the MLA Handbook:

Moore, Nicole. The Censor's Library: Uncovering the Lost History of Australia's Banned Books. U of Queensland P, 2012.

The book provides a comprehensive history of Australian print censorship and discusses its implications for questions of transnationalism and the construction of the reader.

American Psychological Association (APA) 7th Edition

The following information comes from APA 7th Edition chapter 9.51 (pages 307 and 308 in the print edition).

  • "Most APA Style guidelines are applicable to annotated bibliographies."
  • Include in-text citations if you reference other works within a single annotation.
  • Follow your instructor's guidelines, but if those do not specify:
    • Format your citations in alphabetical order.
    • Indent the whole annotation .5 inches.

Example, from the APA Manual:

Barber, L. K., Grawitch, M. J., & Maloney, P. W. (2016). Work-life balance: Contemporary perspectives. In M. J. Grawitch & D. W. Ballard (Eds.), The psychologically healthy workplace: Building a win-win environment for organizations and employees (pp. 111-133). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14731-006

This book chapter provides an overview of the psychosociological concept of work-life balance. The authors discuss findings from studies showing harmful effects of work-life conflict on psychological and behavioral health as well as beneficial effects of work-life facilitation, wherein one role makes a positive contribution to the other. The chapter concludes with a description of work-life balance initiatives that organizations have adopted to help employees manage their dual work and nonwork obligations and some of the key factors influencing their effectiveness.

The Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition

The following information comes from Chicago 17th Edition chapter 14.64 (page 779 in the print edition).

  • Annotations are usually started on the line following citations.
  • Annotations are usually indented.

Example, from the Chicago Manual:

Allen, Donald M., ed. The New American Poetry. New York: Grove Press, 1960.

Concentrates on the postwar period from 1945 to 1960 and presents the work of poets who identified themselves with antiformalist movements or waves, often associated with fugitive publications and little magazines (Yugen, Neon, Kulchur, Big Table, etc.): the most prominent groups were the Black Mountain school (Olson, Duncan) and the experimental city poets from New York (like Frank O'Hara, LeRoi Jones, and Gilbert Sorrentino) and San Francisco (the "Beats" Kerouac, Corso, Ginsberg). John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Denise Levertov, and Gary Snyder are also represented... (continues on).