Tips and Instructions on How to Write a Bibliography The Right Way

Do you have your paper finished and you are pleased with your work? If you are anything like me you have probably put everything you have into creating a great paper. You've done your research and have come up with all the information to make the grade. But, now you're at the end and find yourself searching for instructions on how to write a bibliography. For many, the bibliography is much harder to write than the paper itself. It doesn't have to be complicated, but there are a few rules that need to be followed in creating a bibliography.

It is essential to know the purpose of the bibliography. Basically, the simple definition of a bibliography is a list of periodicals, books, newspapers, and internet sources used to conduct your research.

It is important to keep track of your resources while you are writing the paper. It is much harder to go back after the paper is written and have to try to find where each piece of research originated from. You should get the resource cited correctly while writing the paper, for a much easier task of bibliography writing at the end of your paper. Your bibliography should progress along with your paper. Idealistically, when the paper is finished, so should be the bibliography.

While there are many resources available that will give detailed explanations of how to properly cite your work, it is often easier to look at other bibliography samples and follow the methods used. Different sources of information have different rules for bibliography. For example, with a magazine article you would include the author, magazine title, year the magazine was published, and the page number used in your research. A book would include the author and title.

Keep your bibliography in alphabetical order. If you listed an author, then the bibliography is alphabetized by the author's last name. If there is no author, the instructions on writing the bibliography would be to alphabetize by the first word of the title. If there is more than one author, then they should be listed in the same order in which they are listed on the title page.