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Literature Reviews

How to understand and write a literature review for an academic paper or research article.

Annotated Bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is like a works cited list but expanded to include explanations of each source and why you used them.

MLA Handbook Plus (5.132) includes more information about how to create your annotated bibliography in MLA style.

Document

  • Page title: Annotated Bibliography or Annotated List of Works Cited
  • Can be organized in the following ways, given the objective of the assignment:
    • Alphabetical by author or title
    • Chronological by date of publication
    • Thematic by subject

 

Cited Work

FORMAT

When annotating a citation, structure the citation in MLA style, including hanging indent for second and subsequent lines of citation. Indent the text of the annotation by a half-inch (so it should line up with the hanging indent).
 

CONTENT

The annotation should include the following aspects succinctly phrased (typically 1-2 sentences, no more than 1 paragraph in length):

  • Summary of document - key arguments, data, etc.
  • Assessment of document - evaluate, compare to other documents.
  • Reflect on the document - how does this document fit your research? What does it offer? Does it change how you see the issue?

Example

From MLA Handbook Plus:

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.

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