Steps to Write a Bibliography | Assignment Help
What is a bibliography and why you should write one ?
When doing any research work and writing a paper, you usually have to consult various different sources for information and ideas. And to give those authors their due credit for their work, you need to refer back to each one of them. A list of all those sources is known as the bibliography, which is an essential part of your paper.
Bibliography v/s References v/s Annotated Bibliography
Both the bibliography and the reference list are used to give due credit to an author, and usually are written at the end of the paper. However, they are two different things, and have their own purposes.
When writing a reference list, you only need to refer back to the sources which you directly cite in your text. This means that any book, journal, speech, law, article, etc. that you quote, paraphrase or even summarize in your own paper needs to be cited in the reference list.
On the other hand, the bibliography in your paper, contains all the sources that you consulted when researching for your paper. This includes even those sources which you went through in order to draw up an idea, but didn’t cite in your paper.
However, the terms bibliography and reference are sometimes used interchangeably. So, confirm with your professor, before getting started on your citation list.
Annotated Bibliography is a citation list in which a the citation is followed by a brief, critical description. This is done to explain the relevance of the source.
Steps to Write a Bibliography
Step 01: Keep Track of All the Resources you consulted.
If you do not keep track of the resources when researching for your paper, writing a bibliography can prove to be extremely tedious. You will have to comb through every nook and crany of your work in order to find out all the resources that you might have used. In contrast, it’s much more easier to just keep a list of all the sources as you go through them. This will save much of your time and effort.
You can use a bibliography worksheet to write down the resources. Try to keep a track of the following information about each source you consult;
- The Author(s) full names,
- The title of the work,
- The date of Publication of the work,
- The publishing company and place,
- The volume number of the journal, magazine encyclopedia, etc.
- The Page Number(s)
Usually, this information is written at easily discernable places. Make sure to look around and not miss anything. If you do not find any of the information, don’t fret for their are ways to make up for it.
Step 02: Writing the Bibliographic Entries
Bibliographic entries can involve a lot of intricacies, and it might be hard for you to get a hang of things immediately, but keep a guide in front of you and you’ll do fine. We have also mentioned some tools that you can use to format your citation.
But before getting to that, you need to know which citation style you are going to use. Normally, your professor will ask for particular style for writing your bibliography, but if not, you can just choose yourself.
The commonly used citation Styles are:
CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style)
It is one of the most commonly used bibliography style. In this style, each bibliographic entry begins with the name(s) of the Author(s) and the title of the work, followed by other details.
MLA Style
A citation list in MLA style may be refers to as the Works Cited page or the Work Referred Page. The citation starts with the last name(s) of the author(s), their first initial, title of the book followed by any additional information. The date comes last. This style requires Title case capitalization.
APA (American Psychological Association)
In the APA style, the citation begins with the last name(s) of the authors, their Initials, the date, the title of the work followed by the additional information. The APA style usually uses a reference list instead of a bibliography.
Turabian Style
The Turabian style, often used interchangeably with the Chicago style, is a simpler form of CMOS, usually used for students who don’t need to publish their works. It begins with the author(s) name followed by the title of the work, and other information. The date is usually written last. However, if you are citing an edited work, then the editor(s) name comes in place of the authors name.
Harvard Style
Harvard Style bibliography starts with the last name(s) of the author(s), followed by the initials. Next comes the date ant the title of the source used. Any other information required depends on the type of source you used in your research.
You can find more detailed information about each style in dedicated books, which can be found online or in your college library, or you can visit the official websites to know more about them.
Step 03: Formating Your Bibliography
All citation styles have particular requirements for their citation lists. Most of the times, the bibliography is to be arranged in an alphabetical order and has to have a hanging indent. Other than that, you need to use appropriate periods, commas and italisize the text when needed.
Citation Tools:
Since writing a bibliography can often be a complicated matter, it is easier to use a bibliography generator when you are getting started. However, these are not perfect in any form and you will need to recheck everything.
BibMe, DocsCite, EasyBib, KnightCite, Scholar Space, Son of Citation Machine, etc. are some of the tools you can use.
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