Creating an Annotated Bibliography in APA Style

INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Writing Annotated Bibliography: APA Style

Updated March 2017| 1

CREATING AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY IN APA

The American Psychological Association produces a specific writing and referencing style guide used in

many subject areas in Social Sciences and Humanities.

General Guidelines

INFORMATIVE

Annotations can be descriptive, summarizing the authors' qualifications, research methods, and

arguments.

INDICATIVE

Annotations can evaluate the quality of scholarship in a book or article. This type of annotation

considers the logic of authors' arguments, the quality of their evidence, identifies gaps or strengths, and

might compare the work to another author’s position on the same topic. Your findings can be positive,

negative, or mixed.

Your professor might also want you to explain why the source is relevant to your assignment.

SAMPLE PAGE: APA-FORMATTED ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Annotated Bibliography 2

Battle, K. (2007). Child poverty: The evolution and impact of child benefits. In Covell, K., & Howe, R. B.

(Eds), A question of commitment: Children's rights in Canada (pp. 21-44). Waterloo, ON:

Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Ken Battle draws on his research as an extensively-published policy analyst, and a close

study of some government documents, to explain child benefits in Canada. He outlines

some fundamental assumptions supporting the belief that all society members should

contribute to the upbringing of children. His comparison of Canadian child poverty rates to

those in other countries provides a useful wake-up to anyone assuming Canadian society is

doing a good job of protecting children from want. He pays particular attention to the

National Child Benefit (NCB), arguing that it did not deserve the criticism it received from

politicians and journalists. He outlines the NCB’s development, costs, and benefits,



Updated March 2017 | 2

including its dollar contribution to a typical recipient’s income. He laments that the

Conservative government scaled back the program in favour of the Universal Child Care

Benefit (UCCB), and clearly explains why it is inferior. However, Battle relies too heavily on

his own work; he is the sole or primary author of almost half the sources in his

bibliography. He could make this work stronger by drawing from the perspectives of

others' analyses. However, Battle does offer a valuable source for this essay, because the

chapter provides a concise overview of government-funded assistance currently available

to parents. This offers context for analyzing the scope and financial reality of child poverty

in Canada.

Kerr, D., & Beaujot, R. (2003). Child poverty and family structure in Canada, 1981-1997. Journal of

Comparative Family Studies, 34(3), 321-335.

Sociology professors Kerr and Beaujot analyze the demographics of impoverished

families. Drawing on data from Canada’s annual Survey of Consumer Finances, the authors

consider whether each family had one or two parents, the age of single parents, and the

number of children in each household. They analyze child poverty rates in light of these

demographic factors, as well as larger more pervasive issues.

Howard, T, & Rifkin, J (1977). Who should play God? New York: Dell.

This book "lifts the cloak of secrecy from genetic experiments" and explores, among other

things, "who is performing the research and who profits from it" (12). It's clearly anti-

genetic engineering; its chapter titles give a good idea of the direction and flavor of the

book, for example, "Eugenics," "Eliminating 'Bad' Genes," "Bio-Futures," "Scientists and

Corporation." This book looks as if it is an appropriate source for the social arguments from

the political left wing.




Schechter, H. (1971). Death and resurrection of the king: Elements of primitive mythology and ritual

in "Roger Malvin's Burial." English Language Notes, 8, 201-05.

Though Schechter reorganizes the material in an interesting format, basically his study is a

reiteration of Cassier's seminal argument in The Sacred and the Profane: Modern Myth

Studies. Schechter's major contribution to the debate is his recognition that Reuben

sacrifices Cyrus so that the curse of death-in-life can be removed. Schechter's attempt to

put Cassier's argument in a Jungian context is intriguing but not quite successful, since he

must important elements in the story to do so.

Wait, Waite, L. J., Goldschneider, F. K., & Witsberger, C. (1986). Nonfamily living and the erosion of

traditional family orientations among young adults. American Sociological Review, 51 (4),

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 nonfamily 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

nonfamily living.

Voeltz, L.M. (1980). Children's attitudes toward handicapped peers. American Journal of Mental

Deficiency, 84, 455-464.

As services for severely handicapped children become increasingly available within

neighborhood public schools, children's attitudes toward handicapped peers in integrated




settings warrant attention. Factor analysis of attitude survey responses of 2,392 children

revealed four factors underlying attitudes toward handicapped peers: social-contact

willingness, deviance consequation, and two actual contact dimensions. Upper elementary-

age children, girls, and children in schools with most contact with handicapped peers

expressed the most accepting attitudes. Results of this study suggest the modifiability of

children's attitudes and the need to develop interventions to facilitate social acceptance of

individual differences in integrated school

AICPA sets ethical standards for outsourcing. (2005). Journal of Accountancy, 199(1), 8. Retrieved

from http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/ settings.

This article discusses the new standards for outsourcing developed by the AICPA ethics

committee. The standards are summarized, and a brief discussion is included of the

implications going forward for business and international trade. The authors indicate that

changes to the business community will be relatively minor. This is a helpful source for

getting an overview of the current ethics standards in outsourcing.

American Management Association. (1996). The AMA style guide for business writing. New York, NY:

Author.

The American Management Association has created its own guide for business writing.

Designed as a supplemental text to more thorough style guides such as APA, this guide

covers topics relating specifically to business, such as citing financials, formatting of

company reports, and professional approaches to information integrity in the workplace.

This is an indispensible work for anyone doing professional business writing.

Barthelemy, J., & Geyer, D. (2005). An empirical investigation of IT outsourcing versus outsourcing in

France and Germany. Information & Management, 42, 533-542.

doi:10.1016/j.im.2004.02.005




The authors present an investigation of IT outsourcing based on the combined results of a

survey administered to IT firms as well as statistical measures from domestic and French or

German firms. Their data covers a wide range of IT business unit types. However, the lack of

longitudinal data weakens their conclusion that the slower pace of French and German IT

outsourcing has had a positive effect on business in those countries long-term.

PAY ATTENTION TO RULES!

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th Ed.) states the following

formatting rules:

The text and the reference list should be double-spaced.

Numbering starts on the title page, at the top right of the page.

Reference list entries must have a hanging indent.

There should be 1 inch (2.54 cm) margins all around (top, bottom, left, and right) on each page.

Use Times Roman font, or a similar serif font – Calibri or Arial.

Each paragraph should be indented.

Creating an Annotated Bibliography in APA Style

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