Once you have finished writing an article, you will always need to add a bibliography that lists all your sources, be they books, newspapers, interviews or websites. This page will make it easy for you to find the documents you have used for research.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: During the Article Research and Writing Process
Step 1. Make a note of any sources you used when searching
As you read and write, write down all relevant information about the source.
- For books, include the author, book title, publishers, essay name along with page number, publisher, place of publication, date of publication, and where you found the book (more for yourself than for the article itself).
- If you are using a newspaper article, you will need the author, article name, journal name, publication volume and number, publication date, article page numbers, and possibly the DOI (a similar number ISBN for books) and / or the database or website where you found the article.
Step 2. Keep your notes organized
When taking notes, be sure to note which source the information is coming from. Try to keep all the reference materials in the same place, it will save you time when writing your bibliography.
- A useful way to keep track of sources is to write source papers. These cards consist of small notes that contain all the information relevant to a particular source.
- Source cards are a neat and convenient way to organize your sources - you can keep all the cards in a box or folder, in alphabetical order.
Step 3. Track down the sources you actually used
Typically, you will only need to include sources that you have quoted or paraphrased directly in the text, so it is important that you make a note of all the sources you have used in the text and which you have used for reading only.
- However, in some cases, you may need to cite sources that have been beneficial to your topic, but have ended up not citing directly.
- It is more common to use only one page of the "worked citations", so you should also include those 2consulted "only if the teacher requests them.
Part 2 of 3: Writing the Bibliography
Step 1. Put the bibliography at the end of the search
The bibliography is placed at the end of the search, usually before any appendices or glossaries. Put the bibliography on a new page at the end of your search.
Step 2. Structure the quotes in the appropriate style
Start by entering quotes following the standard required by your school.
- For example, you may need to use the American Psychological Association style (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), American Sociological Association (ASA), or Chicago style.
- You will find examples of each style in the section below. Each style will involve a slightly different way of citing, but you'll always use the same background information.
Step 3. Put the bibliography in alphabetical order, sorting the surnames of the authors
Once you have written all your references, organize them by ordering the authors' surnames. If a source has no author, use the first part of the title to place it in alphabetical order.
When you have multiple works by the same author, you can use the title to decide in what order to put the citations in the list
Step 4. Make sure you have included any sources you used in your search
A bibliography is essentially a collection of all the sources cited. Forgetting to include a citation from a source used in the search could lead you to be accused of plagiarism, even if the mistake was accidental.
Part 3 of 3: Structuring the Bibliography
Step 1. Use the right space and the correct indentation
After you have written the bibliography, you will need to review it to make sure the format is correct. Two basic formatting considerations are these:
- Use the double space in the bibliography just as you used the double space for the rest of your research.
- Use the hanging paragraph. The hanging paragraph is the one in which the first line of each quote is completely to the left, while every other line is indented.
Step 2. Learn to cite books by following the appropriate guidelines
In the following examples, "Georgina Roberts" is the author, and "Eating Pie for Dinner" is the title of the book. The publisher is Great Books for Eating, located in Waco, Texas. The publication date is 2002. "Print" is the publication medium.
- MLA: Roberts, Georgina. Eating Pie for Dinner. Waco: Great Books for Eating, 2002. Print.
- APA: Roberts, G. (2002). Eating pie for dinner. Waco, Texas: Great Books for Eating.
- Chicago: Roberts, Georgina. Eating Pie for Dinner. Waco, Texas: Great Books for Eating, 2002.
- ASA: Roberts, Georgina. 2002. Eating Pie for Dinner. Waco, TX: Great Books for Eating.
- Note that the two most commonly used styles in science, APA and ASA, give the date a higher value, placing it closer to the beginning of the quote. The Chicago style and that of the MLA - used mostly for humanities -, on the other hand, do not give the same value of importance to the date.
Step 3. Learn how to quote newspaper articles in the appropriate style
In the following examples, "Joy Thompson" is the author, and "Pie for Life" is the name of the article, published in the newspaper "Bakers Anonymous". Volume and publication number are 8 and 2 respectively. It was published in 2005, and the number of pages for the article is 35-43. The medium of publication is "web". The DOI is 102342343. Access is on February 2, 2007.
- MLA: Thompson, Joy. "Pie for Life." Bakers Anonymous 8.2 (2005): 35-43. Web. 2 Feb. 2007.
- APA: Thompson, J. (2005). Pie for life. Bakers Anonymous, 8 (2), 35-43. doi: 102342343
- Chicago: Thompson, Joy. "Pie for Life." Bakers Anonymous 8, no. 2 (2005): 35-43. Accessed February 2, 2007. Doi: 102342343.
- ASA: Thompson, Joy. 2005. "Pie for Life." Bakers Anonymous 8 (2): 35-43.
Step 4. Use other sources to learn how to structure more complex sources
If you are curious about how to cite more complex sources in each style, Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a great resource for understanding the guidelines of each style: in addition to having examples of each style, you will be able to access information on how to cite. different types of sources.
