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How to Write a BibliographyFour Methods: Sample Bibliographies Writing an APA Bibliography Writing a MLA Bibliography

Writing a CMS Bibliography

When you write a paper or a book, it's important to include a bibliography, a list

of all the books, articles, and other references you used to inform your work.

Bibliographies are typically formatted according to one of three styles: American

Psychological Association (APA) for scientific papers, Modern Language

Association (MLA) for humanities papers, and Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)

for for books and journals.

Sample APA

Annotated

Bibliography

Sample Bibliography

for Seminar Paper

Sample MLA

Annotated

Bibliography

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Create a reference list. Reserve a page at the end of the paper for the bibliography.

Title it "References." Follow this heading with a list of articles, books, web

publications, and other sources you used to inform your work.

Cite articles. Articles are cited with the author's name, followed by the year, then the

title of the article, the publication name, the volume and issue number, and the group

of pages referenced. The format is as follows: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). "Title of

article." Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), pages.

Example: Jensen, O. E. (2012). "African Elephants." Savannah Quarterly, 2(1), 88.

If the article was retrieved online, include the words "Retrieved from" followed by

the web address.

Include as much information as you can find. If information is missing, leave it out.

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Sample Bibliographies

Method 1 of 3: Writing an APA Bibliography

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Cite books. Start with the author's name, followed by the publication year, the title of

the book, the location of the publisher, and finally the name of the publisher. The

format is as follows: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book. Location: Publisher.

Example: Worden, B. L. (1999). Echoing Eden. New York, New York: One Two

Press.

Cite websites. Include the author's name, the complete date, the title of the web

page, and the words "retrieved from" with the web address. The format is as follows:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month day). Title of web page/document. Retrieved from http://URL to

specific page

Example: Quarry, R. R. (May 23, 2010). Wild Skies. Retrieved from

http://wildskies.com.

If no author is available, just start with the title. If no date is available, write "n.d."

Include in-text citations. APA requires the use of simple citations in parenthesis

directly after the line or idea in your text for which you used a particular reference. The

in-text citations give limited information, and correspond with complete citations located in

the bibliography at the end of the paper.

When paraphrasing a reference, include the author's last name and the year of

publication. Example: Research showed that the monarch population has

dwindled over the past ten years (Jensen, 2011).

For direct quotes, include the author's last name, the year and the page number.

Example: The monarch butterfly population is "rapidly decreasing as a result of

global warming" (Jensen, 2011, p. 380).

If you don't have an author's name, use the first few words of the publication title.

Example: Fewer butterflies were seen on the California coast (Butterfly News,

2011).

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Create a works cited page. Reserve a page at the end of your paper for the

bibliography, referred to as "works cited" in MLA style. Write "Works Cited" at the top

of the page, and list the books, articles, and websites that you used as sources in your

paper.

Cite articles. Start with the last name and first name of the author, followed by the title

of the article, the title of the publication, the volume and issue number, the date, and

the pages. Be sure to use the correct italicization and punctuation. The format is as follows:

Author's last name, first name. "Article title." Periodical title Volume number Date: pages.

Example: Green, Marsha. "Life in Costa Rica." Science Magazine 1 4 Mar. 2013:

1-2.

Include as much information as you have on any given article.

Cite books. Include the author's last name and first name, the book title, the place of

publication, the publishing company, and the publication date. The format is as

Method 2 of 3: Writing a MLA Bibliography

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follows: Author's last name, first name. Book title. Additional information. City of publication:

Publishing company, publication date.

Example: Butler, Olivia. Parable of the Flower. Sacramento: Seed Press, 1996.

Cite websites. Start with the author's last and first name (if available,), the title of the

article or project, the title of the website, the date of publication, the name of the

sponsoring institution, the date of access, and the full web address. The format is as

follows: Author's last name, first name. "Title of work within a project or database." Title of

site, project, or database. Electronic publication information (Date of publication or of the

latest update, and name of any sponsoring institution or organization). Date of access and

<full URL>.

Example: Jong, June. "How to Write an Essay." Writing Portal. 2 Aug. 2012.

University of California. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://writingportal.com>.

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Create a bibliography page. Reserve a page for the bibliography at the end of your

paper or book. Write "Bibliography" at the top and list the books, articles, websites,

and so on that you used as sources in your work.

Cite articles. Write the full name of the author, the article title, the journal or magazine

title, the volume number, the date the article was published, and the page number. If

you're citing a newspaper, leave out the volume number. The format is as follows: Author

first and last name. "Article Title." Journal Title. Volume number (date): page number.

Example: Skylar Marsh. "Walking on Water." Earth Magazine 4(2001): 23.

Cite books. Write the full name of the author, the title of the book, the city of

publication, the publisher, the publication year, and the page number. The format is as

follows: Walter White. Space and Time. New York: Lindon Press, 1982.

Cite websites. Write the name of the company or organization, the name of the web

page or article, the date it was last modified, and the full web address. The format is

as follows: Company name. "Name of Web Page." Date last modified. Web address.

Example: University of California. "History of University of California." Last

modified April 3, 2013. http://universityofcalifornia.com.

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Annexure I and II, SCI Indexed Help withmanuscript preparation

Method 3 of 3: Writing a CMS Bibliography

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Be sure to include each and every source you reference in your work.

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http://www.library.mun.ca/guides/howto/apa.php

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-

projects/project_mla_format_examples.shtml

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

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Italiano: Come Scrivere una Bibliografia, Português: Como Escrever uma

Bibliografia, Español: Cómo escribir una bibliografía, 中文: 列参考书

目, Français: Comment présenter une bibliographie, Deutsch: Ein Literaturverzeichnis

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