1. W H A T T H E Y A R E A N D W H Y W E N E E D T H E M
I N A C A D E M I C W R I T I N G
B Y , A L Y S S A W I L S O N
Annotated Bibliographies

2. What are they?
 Annotated bibliographies help deepen your research
and help you to better understand your sources.

3. What is their purpose?
 For the Professor:
 To see that you’ve done the research
 To check your progress and the direction of your final project
 For you:
 To help make sense of your sources so you can utilize them in
your final project
 To check your comprehension of the sources

4. How do you do one?
 3 parts: What, Why, How
 Summary: here you explain the main points of the source.
WHAT is the author or source telling you?
 Analysis: here you look at the source itself and determine its
quality, and how it differs from your other sources.
 Reflection: here you look at WHY you need this source, and
HOW it supports or opposes your final argument.

5. Example
 McCormack, Gavan. Client State: Japan in the American Embrace. London: Verso,
2007.
This source is written by Gavan McCormack, an Emeritus Professor in the
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies in Australian National University located
in Canberra. It provides a modern-day insight into Japan’s alliance with the United
States. McCormack describes many different aspects of Japan’s policies from nuclear
warfare to the question of national identity or “Japaneseness” (Nihonjin-ron) in the
twenty-first century. He argues that Japan has been sucked thoroughly into the
“American embrace” (hence the title) by promoting policies that weren’t necessarily
popular with the general population, but that would benefit their ties with the U.S.A.
He asserts that the embrace has become “increasingly stifling” for Japan and that they
have been turned into a kind of political “puppet” for the United States.
Written for scholars specifically, he uses many primary sources directly
translated from Japanese to English, which provides us with credible sources and first-
hand accounts. His critical analysis of Japan’s modern-day economic and political
policies stipulates an important insight for my research because it can give me good
modern day examples of the point I am trying to prove. However, because it is about
modern-day Japan, it limits me on explaining why and how the occupation helped and
or hindered Japan. Although it gives me good reference points in the present, it does
not aid me in between.

6. What is expected?
 For this assignment
 6 annotations minimum
 ½ page per source, two paragraphs per source. What is it, and
how is it useful?

7. QUESTIONS?