How to write a Bibliography

A  bibliography is an alphabetical list of all sources you used when researching an essay or paper.

You will find it easier to write your bibliography if you keep track of each book, encyclopedia or article as you research. Make sure you have full title, author, place of publication, publisher and date of publication for each source. If it is an article, you will also need magazine or newspaper title, volume number, year or date of publication and appropriate page numbers.

When assembling you final bibliography, list sources (books, texts articles, etc.) in alphabetical order by authors' last names. Sources that don't have a authors (encyclopedias, movies) should be alphabetized by title.

General guide to formatting a bibliography.
Book with one author:

 Author (last name, first name). Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher, Date of publication.

Book with two authors:

Author's last name, first name and second author's full name. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

Book with an editor:

Editor's last name, first name, ed. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

Encyclopedia article:

Encyclopedia Title, Edition Date. Volume Number, "Article Title," page numbers.

Short story or chapter of a book:

Author's last name, first name. "Title." Title of book that source comes from. Ed. Editor of book's full name. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication. Pages of source.

Journal article:

Author's last name, first name. "Title of article." Journal Title volume number: issue number (year of publication): page numbers.

Magazine article:

Author's last name, first name. "Title of article." Magazine title date of publication: page numbers.

Newspaper article:

Author's last name, first name. "article title." Newspaper title [city of publication, if not in title] date of publication, edition if necessary, section if necessary : page numbers.

A person:

Last name, first name. Occupation. Date of interview.

A film:

Title. Dir. Director's name. Distributor. Year.

CD-ROM:

Disc title: Version, date. "Article title." pages if given. Publisher.

Email message:

Author of message, (Date). Subject of message. Electronic conference or bulletin board(Online). Available e-mail:LISTSERV@ e-mail address

Website:

Site name. Date of last update. Author. Date you access the site <URL>

 

Online service:

Author's last name, first name. "Name of article." Name of original publication Date of publication:page number. Name of database. Name of the service. Name of the library or library system. Date accessed <URL>.

Further reading:

Since there are several different formats for bibliographies, make sure you use your teacher prefers.