ECON 214: Public Finance (HC)

A good annotation summarizes and evaluates each source. A good annotation does the following:

• discusses the writer's background/credibility
• summarizes the content of the source
• describes the usefulness of the source
• draws connections between the source content and the student's research topic
• begins with a properly formatted citation

According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2019, p. 307), Section 9.51 Annotated Bibliographies:

• Format annotated bibliographies like an APA paper 
• Order citations as on an APA paper Reference page: alphabetically with hanging indents   
• Annotations should appear in a new paragraph the citation, indented 0.5 inches from the left margin
• Annotations with multiple paragraphs: indent the first line of the second and any subsequent paragraphs an additional 0.5 in., the same as you would a block quotation with multiple paragraphs.

The Chicago Manual of Style Online, Section 13.68, Kinds of Bibliographies, addresses annotated bibliographies:

• Order references alphabetically with hanging indents  
• Start annotation in a new paragraph below each reference
• Do not further indent the first line of the annotation
• Sample annotation (Figure 13.10)