develop your critical thinking skills through analysis and critical response to the material.identify the wider concerns and arguments of material, and other contexts or debates that it builds on.summarise large amounts of information into a few sentences.including works that you’ve identified as not relevant – a brief note about what the material includes will remind you why you discounted that sourceįor more important sources, there are many additional benefits, particularly in helping you develop techniques to:.reminding you of anything that you might want to come back to later but don’t have time to take detailed notes about now.keeping track of minor works that are only useful to provide supplementary information (for example, in footnotes) or will be compiled in your literature review.You should aim to make an entry for everything that you read, even sources that you only refer to briefly. When you come to compile your literature review and to provide further references it is extremely helpful to have a comprehensive list of everything that you’ve read and referred to throughout your research. Whilst it’s fairly easy to keep track of the main sources that you work with, as you progress through your research you’ll find you have hundreds of sources to keep track of. A short paragraph of additional information about the material: what it covers, why it’s helpful, and a critical comment about the reading.the usual bibliographic information about the text write in the correct format for your referencing style as you go along – this will be extremely useful when you come to produce the final bibliography.The more you read, the more you will find this an invaluable time-saving resource!Įach annotated bibliography entry should provide: This is not intended to replace the more detailed notes that you make but provides a quick and easy reference point that compiles brief notes about all your sources in one place. Here is Charlotte’s guide to starting and maintaining an annotated bibliography.Īn annotated bibliography supplements titles and publication information with a few key details about each book. As Charlotte Mathieson suggests in Writing a literature review, you can make things easier for yourself by keeping an annotated bibliography. As your PhD or research project evolves, so too must your literature review.