It is recommended that authors of nonfiction should include a bibliography. Because of the impact of additional pages on cost, we should agree beforehand on length. Also, remember that “complete” means complete: if you are going to have a bibliography, turn it in with the rest of the manuscript.
House style is that the bibliography should reference the most important documents that were consulted that are relevant, even if they are not cited directly in the text. My rationale for this rule is that what you need to cite in the final text depends on the exact points you make, how you phrase them, what happens during editing, and so on. The point of the more complete reference strategy is to give knowledgeable readers a sense of confidence that you consulted the best known sources and to give less knowledgeable readers a better set of jumping off points if they choose to read further on their own.
I like annotated bibliographies, but I do insist that if you are going to annotate it, you need to say something worthwhile about most (if not all) of the books you discuss. Don’t just say “X is a good study”: explain why you like it, and be candid about which books are better and which are worse.
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