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Creating an Annotated Bibliography

The Basic Formula for APA Style

Created by the American Psychological Association, APA style is used for:

  • Anthropology
  • Business (often uses Chicago style too)
  • Education
  • Library Science
  • Psychology

The basic formula for APA (American Psychological Association) citations can be found below:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Example:

  • Written by one author: Kurtz, T. G. (1972). A random trotter product formula. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 35(1), 147–148. https://doi.org/10.1090/S0002-9939-1972-0303347-5
  • Written by multiple authors: Zhang, X., Moore, C., & Newman, M. E. J. (2017). Random graph models for dynamic networks. The European Physical Journal B : Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 90(10), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2017-80122-8
  • Written by no authors: Random thoughts: "hose stuff". (1999). Fire Engineering, 152(6), 140–140.

Traditional Print books:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name.

Examples: 

  • Anderson, C. (2016). White rage: The unspoken truth of our racial divide. Bloomsbury.
  • Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One World.
  • Oluo, I. (2018). So you want to talk about race. Seal Press.

Electronic books:

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL

*It is only necessary to denote format when the electronic version differs from the traditional print version.*

Audiobooks:

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Publisher.

*It is only necessary to denote format when the audiobook version differs from the traditional print version in some way (is abridged or has additional content).*

Traditional print news article:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, pages.

  • Collins-Hughes, L. (2020, August 1). Provincetown: Go for the mask compliance: Stay for the show. New York Times, C1. 

Online news article (from a publisher with a physical newspaper):

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Publication. URL

Online news article (from a publisher wihtout a physical newspaper):

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Name of publishing website. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL

Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page. Site name. URL

Title of page. (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

Photographer, P. (Year of publication). Title of image [Image type]. Source. URL

Examples:

If the author isn't a person, but a group, use the groups name:

If you don't know the title of the image, use a short description in brackets as the title:

Blogpost:

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of post. Publisher. URL

Facebook:

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Type of post]. Site Name. URL

Instagram:

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Type of post]. Site Name. URL

Twitter:

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words[Tweet]. Site Name. URL

YouTube (or other streaming video):

Last Name, F. M. [Username]. (Year, Month Date). Title of video [Video]. Streaming Service. URL

Format for APA Annotated Bibliographies

Once you have completed the citation, you'll want to add your annotation. Your citation should follow the hanging indent style that is found in all Reference lists, while your annotation should be in paragraph style and indented one inch to the left. Below find an example:

To complete the formatting above in Microsoft Word:

  • Select the text of your citations and right-click. Select "paragraph" and under the "Indentation" section, set "Special" to "Hanging."
  • Select the text of your annotations and hit the "tab" button on your computer.

If you have any questions about this formatting or any other aspect of creating an annotated bibliography, reach out to us at research@bridgewater.edu.