Step By Step Guide To Write Bibliography

Write Bibliography

For many projects, thesis, dissertation and coursework your instructor wants you to write bibliography. Bibliography is the list of all the sources you have used for gathering information for your research paper. It is organized in alphabetical order. The bibliography- list of sources used is usually present in every paper and mostly in the indexes. As shared by experts of assignment writing services, there are two main purposes of writing bibliography; firstly for giving credits to the original authors whose work has been quoted or used as reference for avoiding any plagiarism and secondly readers can refer to the bibliography for verifying genuineness of the facts and figures written in a research paper.

Difference between Citation, Bibliography and Annotated Bibliography:

There is a significant difference between citation, bibliography and annotated bibliography. Citation is the list of every work quoted or mentioned in the paper; bibliography is the list of every source or work used in writing the paper, while in annotated bibliography the author writes a short note for explaining the significance and crediting the sources. In MLA format usually citation is used whereas in Turabian and Chicago bibliography and annotated bibliography are preferred.

Elements of Bibliography:

There are eight elements of bibliography: author name, title of source, title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, date of publishing and location. First of all when writing your paper you must keep a record of all the books, magazines, journals, and websites you have used for information in a separate notebook. For every printed source use you must record the above stated elements of bibliography and for all websites you must note down the following information; name of author and editor, title, name of company who has posted it on the website, complete URL, and the last date of modification.

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Where to Look for Bibliography Information:

Depending on different types of resources the bibliography information can be found at different places. You must look at the following places for getting the right information regarding bibliography; title page of book, magazine, the top heading of the article, editorial page of the newspaper, about or content page of the website, the content page of journal, and the header and footer of a website.

How to Do It:

For writing a biography first you must write all the sources in the form of a list in alphabetical order by author name, title or by date of publication or by subject. You can use the APA style of MLA format.

  • MLA Bibliography: In MLA format the entire biography is double spaced and there is a margin of 1 inch around the page. The reference page is titled as Annotated Bibliography. The annotations are used after the list of references and usually it is not greater than one paragraph. If there are more than one paragraph then each paragraph is indented and separated with space
  • APA Style Bibliography: American psychological Associations prefer to set the bibliography guidelines to be set by the instructor. The written description of APA formatting is similar to MLA but there is a difference in formatting the references. The page is titled as annotated Bibliography and the whole page is double spaced. Each line is indented one-half inch from the left margin. The annotation is added on the net line below the citation.

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  1. For more than one author the authors’ names are written in alphabetical order.
  2. For more than two authors the word Et al. is used after mentioning the name of three to four authors. Et al. is a Latin word which means and others.
  3. For the newspapers and magazines the bibliography include name of author, title of article, newspaper name, date of publication and page number. The title of the article is written in quotation marks and the title of the newspaper is written in italics.
  4. For citing the interview that you have conducted personally, you must write last name first of interviewee, personal interview, and then date of interview. For citing the interviews conducted by others, first write the last name first of interviewee, title of publication, volume and page number and then the date of publishing.
  5. For citing the audio or visual content like documentaries or television programs, first write the title of film in italics, name of director/s, and name of film studio and then year of release. For television programs write the title of the episode (in quotation), title of the program (italics), name of writer and director/s, name of Production Company and date of broadcasting.
  6. For citing the speeches, conferences and presentations first write the name of speaker, title of speech, name of event and date in dd-mm-yy format, and location.