Finishing up your paper… Setting up your bibliography

Why bother? Documenting your sources adds authority and credibility to your work. Gives credit to your sources. Allows further research. Teachers like it! SO JUST DO IT!

First things first… Ooops! When you take notes from any information source you should always record the required bibliographic data i.e. information for your bibliography, before moving onto the next source.

Looking, looking… You’ll find the information you need to make your bibliography on the title page… you know… it’s that page inside the cover, the one with the title on it! Some information will also be on the back or verso of this page.

Rules, rules, and more rules! Bibliographies are set out in a special way and there are strict rules for this. In this school, we use the APA or American Psychological Association 'conventions' or layout.

Don’t forget… Title your page Bibliography, Works cited or References. Don’t number references but arrange them in alphabetical order by the author’s surname. Title should be in italics and precise punctuation is very important. If you have 2 books by the same author, put the one that was published first, first.

Book, one author Bradley, M. Z. (1996). Ecology. London: Macmillan. Author’s Surname, First (and middle initial if Known), (Year published). Complete title in italics with only first and proper names capitalised (edition) City of publication: Publisher Name leaving out "Publishers," "Co." or "Inc." Bradley, M. Z. (1996). Ecology. London: Macmillan.

Book, with up to 6 authors Follow the same rules as before. List up to 6 authors, using , and &. Kerns, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., & Harlow, T. (1993). Our living world. Paris: Publique. 

Book with more than 6 authors The Latin phrase et al means “and others.” Harris, M., Harper, E., Stacks, G., Hoffman, D., Denison, R., Cruz, P., et al. (2001). Nature in film. Hollywood, Ca.: Doubleday.

Magazine article Author’s Surname, First (and middle initial if Known), (Year, Month day published). Complete title in italics with only first and proper names capitalised. Magazine, Volume, pages Henry, W. A. (1990, April 9). The green revolution. Time, 135, pp.28-31.

Encyclopaedia Author’s name, if given. Surname, First and middle initial (if Known), (Year published). Complete title in italics. Location of publisher: Name of publisher. Franklin, Malcolm R. (1999). "Benjamin." The World Book Encyclopedia. "France." Compton's Encyclopedia. 1998.

Here’s what it should look like so far… Bradley, M. Z. (1996). Ecology. London: Macmillan. Harris, M., Harper, E., Stacks, G., Hoffman, D., Denison, R., Cruz, P., et al. (2001). Nature in film. Hollywood, Ca.: Doubleday. Henry, W. A. (1990, April 9). The green revolution. Time, 135, pp.28-31. Kerns, M. H., Cornell, D. P., Sun, C. R., Berry, A., & Harlow, T. (1993). Our living world. Paris: Publique.

Brochures and Pamphlets Treat them like books but identify them in brackets as a brochure. Ladoo, Ken. (1996). Coral reefs of Tobago [Brochure]. POS: Institute of marine Affairs.

Internet Direct readers as closely as possible to the information being cited; whenever possible, reference specific documents rather than home or menu pages. Provide addresses that work. Check it out! Document title or description, a date (either the date of publication or update or the date of retrieval), and an address (in Internet terms, a uniform resource locator, or URL). Whenever possible, identify the authors of a document as well.

Universal resource locators URLs The components of a URL are as follows:

For example… National Environmental policy (1998) Retrieved July 6, 2006, from http://www.ema.co.tt/

Snail mail, E-mail Personal communications, such as e-mail messages to you, or private interviews that you conducted with another person, should not be cited in your reference list because they are not retrievable sources for anyone else. You should make reference to these sources in your in-text citations.

FINISHING YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY… ALPHABETISE the list of your resources Title the bibliography page WORKS CITED, BIBLIOGRAPHY or REFERENCES. Double space the list. Single space between punctuation, double space after colon: Indent the second line & following of each source cited (five spaces or use tab key)

Great work! Now watch every one be completely amazed by your professional work.