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Chicago Style (17th ed.): Notes-Bibliography

Guide to formatting and citing using the notes-bibliography format for Chicago Style, 17th. ed.

General Info

What is it?

An annotated bibliography is simply a bibliography page (list of sources) in which each citation is followed by an annotation ("note") that describes or evaluates the source (or both). Annotations let your reader get a little extra insight into your sources and how they support your research.

What goes in your annotation?

Explain the main points of the work briefly.

Your summary should be original to you -- don't just copy/paste the publisher summary of a book or the abstract from a scholarly article.

  • Authority: is the author [or publisher] qualified and/or has expertise in the content area? what's their background (in relation to the topic)?
  • Relevance: how valuable, effective, or useful was this source in your research?
  • Context: who is the intended audience of this source? what is the purpose of it? does there seem to be any bias? are there gaps in coverage?

The exact details of what to include will depend on your assignment -- number of sources, what to discuss in the annotation, and length of your commentary.

Example & More Resources