Many academic writings such as a novel, a research report, a study or a dissertation include a section on bibliography. This word might seem like an alien to you if you are undergraduate. Creating a bibliography is not as overwhelming as it would seem.
What is bibliography?
For your understanding, you can think of a bibliography section as the same as a “reference list”. It lists all the books, articles, research papers or dissertations you have cited in your work.
Why do you need to write a bibliography?
It has the following significance’s:
- It makes easy for the reader of your dissertation to track all the sources you took assistance from
- It makes you free from the accusation of the copyright infringements and plagiarisms
How to write a bibliography?
You can structure your bibliography according to any one of the three formats: APA, MLA, CMS. APA is a standard format for scientific papers.
How to start?
Check General methodology for structuring your dissertation. You can make a simple Word document of the source along with the full title, authors, publishers, and place of publication.
APA Format:
Start with the new page having a centred heading “references”.
Format is:
Author’s last name, first initial, (publication date), title, city of publication: publisher
Example:
Max, A. M., & Pexman. (1999). Presenting findings: A practical guide for tabulation.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
The format is valid for reference books.
Basics:
Author’s name: start with the last name of the author followed by a comma. If first and second names are known then, only use capitalised initial alphabets separated by a period. If there are two authors, then the same format will be followed and both the author’s name will be separated by a comma and ampersand. If the source does not have a definite author, then start with the title source.
Publication dates: it must contain month-day-year format. Month should be written in abbreviation except for May, June, and July. Don’t forget to place a comma after day. Publication date should be in parentheses and must follow a period. It will be arranged chronologically in case of multiple articles from the same author.
Title: the title of the source should be in italics.
Indentation: the first line of every point should be on the top left. Every following should be written after leaving a ½” space from the left.
Other sources:
Encyclopedia and dictionary:
Format
Author’s last name, first initial. (Date). Title of Article. Title of Encyclopedia (Volume, pages). City of publication: Publishing company.
As;
Pettingill, O. S., Jr. (1980). Falcon and Falconry. World book encyclopedia. (pp. 150-155). Chicago: World Book.
Newspaper and magazine article:
Format:
Author’s last name, first initial. (Publication date). Article title. The periodical title, volume number, pages include
As;
Trillin, C. (1993, February 15). Culture shopping. New Yorker, pp. 48-51.
