Rockridge Social Studies

Students can find the experience of producing a bibliography frustrating because bibliographies are comprised of a series of seemingly picky, but important, details. Every period must be in its place, every detail must be provided. This allows the reader to verify his or her sources in a clean and simple manner. If omissions exist then the reader may not be able to follow the "paper trail"––the original material you are citing (whether it be quotes, facts, or ideas).

 

The good news! Once you become familiar with the process it gets significantly easier. Please view the examplar below as well as this graphic. In addition to these examples, websites such as knightcite.com and NoodleBib can easily help you build a proper bibliography, or the latest Microsoft Word software which has bibliographic tools built in. In short, there should be no reason why you cannot produce a great bibliography.

 

 

 

Common Bibliography Mistakes. Please Avoid!

 

• Not in alphabetical order.

• No hanging indents.

• Segmenting different types of sources. For example, do not put all books together and all web sites together. Simply put the different sources in alphabetical order. It will be clear to the reader that a web site, for instance, came from the web because of the listed web address.

• Missing periods and commas.

• Incorrect spacing. 

 

Click here to see a sample Bibliography (also known as Works Cited) using the MLA format.

 

Basic Differences Between Footnote and Bibliographic Formatting

 

1. Notes are listed consecutively by number; bibliographic entries are listed alphabetically by last name of author. Hence, authors' names are not inverted in notes, though they are in bibliographies.

2. In notes, items are usually separated with commas; in bibliographic entries, items are separated with periods.

3. Notes include facts of publication in parentheses; bibliographic entries do not.

4. Notes include the specific page references of the citation; bibliographic entries do not, though they do include the page numbers of journal articles, inclusive.