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Annotated Bibliographies

MLA Formatting Guidelines

  • Follow the same format as an MLA Works Cited Page (unless you're instructed to do otherwise).
  • The first line of the citation starts at the left margin.
  • If the citation is longer than one line, subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches.
  • The annotation is indented 1 inch from the margin.
  • If the annotation is longer than 1 paragraph, indent the first line of subsequent paragraphs. Do not add any additional spacing between paragraphs.
  • The bibliography is double-spaced, both within the citation and between the citation and the annotation.
  • The list can be organized alphabetically by author or title, by date of publication, or by subject.
  • The title for the list should be: "Annotated Bibliography" or "Annotated List of Works Cited."

Example MLA Entry

The example below is an entry in annotated bibliography that:

  • uses MLA formatting
  • summarizes a journal article
  • evaluates the source
  • contains multiple paragraphs
  • explains why the article is significant or useful to the student's assignment

The example below may not display properly on mobile devices or lower resolutions. You can view the example as an image instead.


Chowdhury, Tufayel, Darren Scott, and Pavlos Kanaroglou. "Urban Form and Commuting Efficiency: A Comparative

         Analysis across Time and Space." Urban Studies, vol. 50, no.1, 2013, pp.191-207. Sage Journals

         https://doi-org.com/10.1177/0042098012452324

                    Chowdhury, Scott, and Kanaroglou examine the relationship between the form of a city and

                    the efficiency of commuting. The study compared commuting efficiency rates in three

                    Canadian cities: Halifax, Nova Scotia; Hamilton, Ontario; and Vancouver, British Columbia.

                    Amongst their conclusions, Chowdhury, Scott, and Kanaroglou state that even though

                    commuting is generally more efficient in cities where there is a balanced jobs-to-housing

                    distribution, this may not be the case with Vancouver: even though people in Vancouver

                    may live closer to their workplaces than in Halifax, their commute has not decreased.

                             The article covers new ground in that it uses an alternative approach--specifically, a

                    modified form of a quantitative methodology known as Brotchie's triangle. The authors claim

                    that this approach provides a way to look at a city's commuting patterns with respect to

                    urban form, but they also admit that it may not be the best measure of comparing the distance

                    between jobs and housing. This article is quite useful in my assignment as it provides a clear

                    contrast to the article by Hodson and Vannini, who have used a qualitiative,

                    ethnographically-based strategy to explore the lives of a specific set of British Columbia

                    commuters.

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