How to Write a Bibliography
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Even the best research paper is nothing without a good bibliography to back up your facts. Not only does a bibliography provide resources where your readers can find additional information on topics that interest them, but it helps keep you from being accused of plagerism. Plagerism is taking someone else's unique ideas and claiming them as your own. By using a bibliography to cite the sources where you got your information for your research paper you will be giving credit for ideas where credit is due. A bibliography will also help you back up your facts and arguments in your paper with expert data and opinions which will give your argument more credibility.
So how do you write a bibliography? The two main ways of writing a bibliography are the APA format and the MLA format. This article will outline the APA format.
When you use a fact in your paper, you should either use a footnote or a reference to the name of the author and page number of the book where you found the fact. This directs readers to your bibliography where they can find the source information. For example, let's say you are writing a paper on dogs. You might use the following fact in your paper:
Golden Retrievers are the most popular breed for pets in the United States. (Smith, p. 42)
You'll notice that after you state this fact, you include the last name of the author and the page number where you found the information in parenthesis. Depending upon how your teacher wants you to document your research, you could have used a footnote in place of the author's name and page number, but the general idea is the same. You stated a fact and you are backing it up with documentation from a book that is included in your bibliography.
How to Write a Bibliography
Writing the bilbliography itself can seem a little confusing because there are different formats for different types of books, magazines, and articles. The formats for some of these are outlined below.
Books with one author
Smith, B. (1984). Golden Retrievers. New York: Some Publishing Company.
or
Authors-last-name, author's-first-initial. (Publication Year). Book Title. City: Publishing Company.
(Notice the placements of the periods, commas and parenthesis.)
Books with more than one author
Johnson, L., Harvey, H., & Sampson, S. (1992). Dogs Make Great Pets. Chicago: Chigago Publishing Company.
Edited collections
Dogmaster, J. (Ed.). (1998). Dogs. Minneapolis: Large Publishing Company.
Newspaper articles
Reporter, P. (2006, October 14). Golden Retrievers Make Great Pets. Hometown News, pp. A1, A9.
Monthly Magazine Articles
Articlewriter, G. (1997, March). How to Potty Train a Puppy. Monthly Dog Magazine, pp. 81-86.
Weekly Magazine Articles
Author, N. (1993, June 23). Dogs Help People Live Longer. Weekly Dog Magazine, p. 42.