Begin the list of references on a new, separate page from the body of the paper or essay. Title this page with the word "References" centered at the top of the page. The title should not be bolded, underlined or placed within quotation marks. All text on the reference page should be double-spaced, and all lines following the first line of each entry should be indented.
Arrange the reference list in alphabetical order of the last name of each work's author. If a work has more than one author, use the first author listed. Authors should be included with the last name first and fully written out, followed by the first name initials. The work's year of publication placed in parentheses comes after the author's name.
After the author's name and the year of publication, include the work's title by capitalizing only the first word of the title or subtitle; however, any proper nouns included in the title and words following a colon or hyphen should be capitalized as well. Also, the titles of books and journals should be italicized.
Other information used in a reference list will depend on the type of reference being used. For example, references of periodical articles must also include the journal title, volume number, issue number and page number. Be sure to include the appropriate information for each type of reference.