The most tedious and time-consuming part of any school or college written assignment is the bibliography. Sometimes, it can even be challenging! For example, if you’re confused by the variety of citation styles. This is probably when the most students wonder “Is there someone who could complete my assignment?” That is why Custom-Writing experts prepared a brief guide about creating a perfect bibliography for a project. Some tips regarding the formatting are also included!
First of all, you shouldn’t be worried about how to write this dreadful part of your assignment. A bibliography is just a list of all the sources, such as books and articles, that you have used for creating your project. No matter how short your writing task is, you will most likely need to add a list of references.
📍 What Is a Bibliography?
Every time you use a book, magazine, or a webpage for your essay, you need to mention it in a special list called a bibliography. Even if you are not quoting the source but just using it for the general understanding of the topic, you should still include it there. For citing the source in the text, you would only need to write the author’s name and the publication date. Then, the reference about it goes into your bibliography, and that’s where extra information is needed. However, it would depend on the type of source and the citation style. In case you’re not familiar with the variety of the citation styles and the requirements, have a look at our guide, which can save you some time!
Most of the time, your teacher would request to collect at least three printed sources, so try not to rely on the Internet solely.
👣 How to Write a Bibliography Step by Step
Now you know what a bibliography is. It is time to learn how to write it! We assure you: there is nothing complicated. Follow the steps below.
Select the Sources
The first thing you need to do is find the proper sources for your research assignment. When selecting the sources, you should consider the questions below.
Evaluate Each Source
The next step in writing a bibliography is a brief assessment of each source’s importance.
In case you need a bibliography as part of an assignment, you should identify the reason why and the way how you want to use the source. If you’re assigned to write an annotated bibliography as an independent project, examine the source’s contribution to the research area.
By the way, you may want to use the following questions for sources assessment.
Assess the Author’s Background and Credentials
When writing a bibliography for a project, you may need to examine the author’s credentials and experience. Here are some questions to help you.
Write a Summary for Each Source
Look through the following questions that will guide you. And don’t forget to search for the summarizing paragraphs. You may find them at the beginning or conclusion of each section. If there is none or you aren’t satisfied with its contents, you can take the role of a summary typer yourself and create your own custom summary.
Make a Proper Bibliography
Well, you’re almost there. You’ve evaluated your sources, took short notes, wrote an outline for each reference.
Use your notes and write your bibliography. How?
📑 How to Refer to Different Sources
You will have to use different writing patterns for different sources. Check these guidelines for bibliography writing:
- Book with one author: Author’s last name, first name. Title of the book. City: Publisher, Date of Publication.
Example:
Jones, Edward. The Toy. New York: Random House, 1987.
- Book with two authors: Author’s last name, first name, and second author’s full name. Title of the book. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.
Example:
Jones, Edward and Amelia Smith. Strangers. New York: Random House, 1987.
- Book without an author: Title of the book. City: Publisher, Date of Publication.
Example:
Old Lake. New York: Random House, 1987.
- Article in a book without an author: Name of the article. Title of the book. City: Publisher, Date of Publication.
Example:
Swans. Flora and Fauna. New York: Random House, 1987.
- Book with an editor: Editor’s last name, first name, ed. Title of the book. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.
Example:
Jones, Edward. 100 Recipes for You. New York: Random House, 1987.
- Short story or chapter of a book: Author’s last name, first name. “Title.” Title of the book that the source comes from. Editor (ed.) of the book’s full name. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication. Pages of the source.
Example:
Jones, Edward. “Learning to communicate.” The Toy. Ed. Helen Stevenson. New York: Random House, 1987.
- Encyclopedia article with an author/a signed article: Author’s last name, first name. “Title”. Encyclopedia Title. Volume Number. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.
Example:
Jones, Edward. “The Wild Swans.” World Book Encyclopedia. Volume 13. New York: Random House, 1987.
- Encyclopedia article without an author/an unsigned article: “Title”. Encyclopedia Title. Volume number. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.
Example:
“The Wild Swans.” World Book Encyclopedia. Volume 13. New York: Random House, 1987.
- Journal article: Author’s last name, first name “Article Title.” Name volume number:issue number (year of publication): page numbers.
Example:
Jones, Edward, “The Wild Swans.” Flora and Fauna 15:1, (2007): 8-11.
- Magazine article: Author’s last name, first name. “Article title.” Magazine title date of publication: page numbers.
Example:
Jones, Edward. “Never been kissed” Us Sept 23, 2002: 221-2.
- 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.
Example:
Jones, Edward. “Handbags are Health Hazard.” Daily News [New York] Oct 31 2002: 26.
- Interview: Full name (last name first). Occupation. Date of interview.
Example:
Jones, Edward. Writer. February 10, 2006.
- Film: Title, Director, Distributor, Year.
Example:
Titanic, Dir. James Cameron, 20th Century Fox, 1998
- Email message: Author of message, (Date). Subject of message. Electronic conference or bulletin board (Online). Available email: LISTSERV@ email address.
Example:
Edward Jones, (May 23, 2006). New Winners. Teen Booklist (Online). Edward Jones@yahoo.com
- Web page: URL (Uniform Resource Locator or WWW address). Author (or item’s name, if mentioned), date.
Example:
(Boston Globe’s www address) https://www.boston.com/. Today’s News, May 23, 2006.
🔨 Reference Generators
Nobody wants to do routine work. So you may want to use a citation builder for your assignment. Try one of the source-generating apps or websites below!
By the way,
Have you checked our citation guidelines already?
✏️ Bibliography FAQ
A preliminary bibliography is basically the draft of all the sources you think might help your research. You create it when you are still not too familiar with the topic and scanning all the sources available. It’s not the final version of your bibliography since you might find some of the books not as useful as you thought and never use them.
A bibliography card is used to make the process of gathering and categorizing the sources easier. It’s a small piece of paper the size of a standard sticky note. You would take a new one every time you find a useful source. There you need to mention all the information for later referencing. On the back, you can write a brief summary.
Writing a bibliography for a science project is usually no different from creating one for other assignments. It’s a list of the sources the student uses for completing their task. Every source mentioned in the bibliography needs to have some specific publication information as well.
First of all, you need to make sure that your bibliography follows the citation style you are required to use. Otherwise, it will not be alphabetized correctly. Then, if you’re using the MS word program or a similar one, it’s easy to alphabetize your list by choosing the option “Sort.”
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Excellent! Thanks for your work!
I thank you for the post on this website, and you teach me what I needed to know. This really has helped a lot, so thank you.^)
Glad to help, Kaudiya! 🙂
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Me too!
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I had to write a current event essay with a bibliography. This website really helped.
Thanks,
Lena
Nice guidelines on how to write a Bibliography, I really need it.
Thanks a lot for such a helping website.
Thanks a lot for this website!
Many of the other sites that come up on Google don’t give you a clear enough understanding of how to write it. They’ll just give you a model and expect you to comprehend what all the examples stand for.