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Annotated Bibliographies

APA Formatting Guidelines

  • Follow the same format as an APA Reference List (unless you're instructed to do otherwise).
  • The first line of the citation starts at the left margin. Subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches.
  • The entire annotation should be indented 0.5 inches from the left margin.
  • Do not add an additional indent to the first line of the annotation.
  • If the annotation is multiple paragraphs in length, indent the first line of the second and any other paragraphs that follow.
  • The bibliography is double-spaced, both within the citation and between the citation and the annotation.

Example APA Entry

The example below is an entry in annotated bibliography that:

  • uses APA formatting
  • summarizes a journal article
  • contains multiple paragraphs
  • evaluates the source
  • 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, T. A., Scott, D. M., & Kanaroglou, P.S. (2013). Urban form and commuting efficiency:

         A comparative analysis across time and space. Urban Studies 50(1), 191-207. 

         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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