Is the annotated bibliography formatter free?

Yes. You don't need an account, and there is no limit on how often you use it.

Do you store what I paste?

No. The formatter runs in your browser. Your entries and the Word file are never sent to our server.

Will it write or improve my annotations?

No. It keeps your annotation text exactly as you wrote it and only fixes the spacing. The summary, evaluation and relevance have to come from your own reading.

How do I paste my entries?

Put each reference on one line and your annotation on the lines right below it. Leave a blank line between entries. If an annotation has two paragraphs, put each on its own line without a blank line between them.

What is the difference between the APA and MLA annotated bibliography format?

Both sort the entries alphabetically, give each reference a 0.5 inch hanging indent and double space everything. APA indents the annotation 0.5 inch and puts the heading in bold. MLA indents the annotation 1 inch and leaves the heading plain.

Does it format the references for me?

No. It keeps each reference as you pasted it. If a reference isn't in APA or MLA yet, format it first with the free citation generator.

Can I edit the Word file?

Yes. The .docx opens in Word, Google Docs and Pages with the indents and double spacing already set, so you can keep writing in it.

Free tool

Annotated bibliography formatter for APA and MLA

Paste your references with the annotations you wrote. The formatter sorts them and lays them out in the APA 7 or MLA 9 annotated bibliography format, with hanging indents. It runs in your browser, and it never changes the words of your annotations.

Format your annotated bibliography

What an annotation contains

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources, each followed by a short paragraph of your own about it, usually 100 to 200 words. Your instructor's brief decides the length and which parts to include. Most annotations do some of these three things:

Summary: What the source is and what it says: its question, its method or kind of evidence, and its main finding or argument.
Evaluation: How far you trust it and why: the evidence behind it, its limits, and how it compares with your other sources.
Relevance: How it helps your project: which part of your argument it supports, complicates or gives background for.

Example: one entry in APA 7

Annotated Bibliography

Poropat, A. E. (2009). A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance. Psychological Bulletin, 135(2), 322–338. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014996

Poropat combines the results of many earlier studies of personality and academic performance, with cumulative samples of over 70,000 students. He finds that conscientiousness is linked to grades about as strongly as intelligence is. Because it pools so many studies, it is a strong source for the size of the link, though it can only show an association, not a cause. I use it to support my claim that study habits deserve as much attention as ability in first-year support programmes.

This is an example, written for this page to show the three parts. Write your own annotation from your own reading. In a real bibliography the journal name and volume number are in italics; the formatter keeps the text you paste as plain text, so add italics back in Word.

APA and MLA annotated bibliography format

APA 7

The heading "Annotated Bibliography" is bold and centred at the top.
Entries are in alphabetical order by the first word of the reference, usually the first author's surname.
Each reference has a hanging indent of 0.5 inch.
The annotation starts on the next line, indented 0.5 inch from the left margin.
Everything is double spaced, in a font such as Times New Roman 12.

MLA 9

The heading "Annotated Bibliography" is centred at the top, not bold.
Entries are in alphabetical order by the first word of the entry.
Each entry in the works cited format has a hanging indent of 0.5 inch.
The annotation starts on the next line, indented 1 inch from the left margin.
Everything is double spaced, in a readable font such as Times New Roman 12.

What it doesn't do

It doesn't check or correct your references. It sorts and indents them as you pasted them. To format a reference, use the citation generator; to check that a reference matches a published record, use the reference checker.

It never writes, shortens or edits an annotation. The only change is to spacing: extra spaces are removed and each line becomes one paragraph.

Pasted text loses italics, so add them back to titles in Word after you download.

A reference that starts with "A", "An" or "The" is sorted by the next word, as both styles ask.

Citation generator · Reference checker

FAQ

Is the annotated bibliography formatter free?: Yes. You don't need an account, and there is no limit on how often you use it.
Do you store what I paste?: No. The formatter runs in your browser. Your entries and the Word file are never sent to our server.
Will it write or improve my annotations?: No. It keeps your annotation text exactly as you wrote it and only fixes the spacing. The summary, evaluation and relevance have to come from your own reading.
How do I paste my entries?: Put each reference on one line and your annotation on the lines right below it. Leave a blank line between entries. If an annotation has two paragraphs, put each on its own line without a blank line between them.
What is the difference between the APA and MLA annotated bibliography format?: Both sort the entries alphabetically, give each reference a 0.5 inch hanging indent and double space everything. APA indents the annotation 0.5 inch and puts the heading in bold. MLA indents the annotation 1 inch and leaves the heading plain.
Does it format the references for me?: No. It keeps each reference as you pasted it. If a reference isn't in APA or MLA yet, format it first with the free citation generator.
Can I edit the Word file?: Yes. The .docx opens in Word, Google Docs and Pages with the indents and double spacing already set, so you can keep writing in it.