Creating a paper is a lot of work. However, before you can turn in your essay or report, you need to create a bibliography. The bibliography will list all the sources that you used in the creation of your work. If you follow a basic bibliography template, you’ll be sure to include all the right elements.
Knowing Your Style
Different styles use different citation pages. Chicago, Turabian and Harvard can use a bibliography at the end of the paper. The bibliography provides citation information for all the sources used in the creation of the piece. This will include both works that are cited in the writing and those that were used as background information. Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA) use a different citation page.
Bibliography Layout
The bibliography of your work will follow the format of the rest of the writing. It’ll have a 1-inch top and left margin. The title of the work will come after the page number header. Between the title and the first entry will be a double space. Entries will be single spaced with a space between each entry. The citations will also have a ½-inch hanging indent that comes after the first line of information. Place the bibliography at the very end of your writing on the last page after the endnotes, if you used them.
Bibliography Title
Continuing with the standard template, the title of the bibliography will follow title capitalization. Center the title on the page, labeling it as “Bibliography.” Do not bold or italicize. Additionally, it’ll be in the same font and font size as the rest of the paper (e.g., Times New Roman, 12 pt.).
Bibliography Order
After the title, you’ll start adding the citation entries. List them in alphabetical order, according to the first word. Typically, this will be by the last name of the first author, but for works that don’t have authors, it could be the title of the work or corporation.
Creating Citations
Like any citations page, the way you format your citations will vary based on what type of work you are using. For instance, the citation for a website is different from a book. However, there are a few general rules to remember.
- Write out the names of up to three authors. After that, use the first author’s name and et al. which means “and others” in Latin.
- If the publication date isn’t available, use “n.d.” (short for “no date”) for works that are printed.
- Instead of URLs, use DOIs if they are available.
- All the major words in a title will be capitalized.
- Titles are typically underlined or in italics, depending on style.
Now, that you know the general rules, check out how a few different citations are composed in Chicago/Turabian style.
Example – Book:
Buzzer, Katie. A Culture. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998.
Example – Magazine:
Cunningham, Vinson. “You Don’t Understand: John McWhorter Makes His Case for Black English.” New Yorker, May 15, 2017.
Example – Website:
“Band.” Casa de Calexico. Accessed January 7, 2019. http://www.casadecalexico.com/band.
Formatting Your Bibliography
To make sure that your writing is professional and uniform, there are several different writing styles. These styles help to dictate what your bibliography will look like and the template you should follow. By sticking to the rules for formatting, titles and entries, you can make sure that your work is perfect.