Why Is a Bibliography Important?
Preparing bibliographies helps researchers keep track of the sources they consulted or cited for their written material and gives readers a framework of how the writers’ arguments were formed. Annotated bibliographies make it easy to remember what each source discussed and help readers refer back to those sources when analyzing research papers or building their own work upon existing studies.
A bibliography can include books, newspapers, websites and interviews. An annotated bibliography goes a step further by providing a short synopsis of each source, and some authors include a brief personal analysis. Standard and annotated bibliographies give proper credit to the authors of the source materials, so readers can determine if the ideas of the researcher are original or influenced by past works.