How to Write a Bibliography for a Final Thesis

Writing a thesis paper means there will be many afternoons spent in the library browsing through books, scholarly journals and websites. When the paper is finished, you still must complete the final few pages listing the sources of your research: the bibliography. There are several different formats for bibliographies, but they all include the same basic information: author of publication or article, publication name, publisher and publication facts. All sources---books, websites, magazines---are listed together, in alphabetical order according to the author's last name. Different schools may require you to use different formats, but in most cases, the following Modern Language Association (MLA) style is acceptable, unless your instructor advises you otherwise.

Things You'll Need

  • MLA Style Guide (several versions are available)
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Instructions

    • 1

      Start a new page, with the centered title "Works Cited." Use hanging indents: the first line of a citation should be flush left, and the second and all subsequent lines should be indented a half-inch. Begin typing your list of cited sources alphabetically. For books, still probably the most common sources used in research, type the author's last name, then first name followed by a period. Type the title, italicize it and type a period. Enter the place of publication followed by a colon, then type the name of the publisher followed by a comma, and the copyright date followed by a period.

      Example: Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandria. New York: Ballentine Books, 1967.

    • 2

      Internet websites are often used today for research purposes, and many news services and scholarly journals are available online. To cite a website, type the author (last name first), followed by a period. Next type the title of the article or page within quotes, followed by period. If there is no author listed, begin with the title of the article in quotation marks, omitting "A," "An" or "The." Enter the title of the website, italicize it, and type a period. Provide the date you visited the site and enter the full URL address, beginning with http:// and enclosed by angle brackets, followed by a period.

      Example: Clifford, Erin. "Review of Neuropsychology." Sparknotes. 10 October 2005 <http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/neuro/review/>.

    • 3

      Scholarly articles in journals and newspapers are frequently used as resources when writing a thesis. Reference an article in a monthly magazine by beginning with the author's name (last name first), followed by a period. If there is no author, begin with the title of the article in quotation marks, followed by a period. Type the title of the magazine, italicized followed by a space. Lastly, enter the date of the issue followed by a colon and the pages followed by period.

      Example:

      Hewitt, Ben. "Quick Fixes for Everyday Disasters." Popular Mechanics Nov. 2004: 83-88.

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