How to Complete a Bibliography in APA Style

The American Psychological Association (APA) produces a set of rules and guidelines governing the presentation of research papers, APA style is well-known for its system of documenting the sources you use in your essay. Under the APA format, the bibliography is a reference list. Reference lists, according to the APA style website, only include entries for sources cited within the text of a document. Bibliographies tend to contain resources in addition to the ones cited in a paper.

Instructions

    • 1

      Start your reference list at the end of your paper on a new page separate from your essay's text. Center the word "References" without using special formatting, including quotation marks. Each source you cite in the text of your paper must have a corresponding reference list entry.

    • 2

      Order your reference list alphabetically by each source's first author's last name. Double-space all text in your reference list.

    • 3

      Type the first line of each entry up against the left margin. The APA style website states that you should indent the second and all subsequent lines "a few spaces to the right of the left margin" to create a hanging indent.

    • 4

      List entries with one author as follows.

      McKegney, T. (2010) Surviving in the National Hockey League. New York: Bantam

      Books.

    • 5

      Format two author sources, three to seven author sources and sources with more than seven authors as shown in the examples below.

      Wagner, T., & Petty, R. A.

      McInnis, M. A., Carson, A. P., San, A. B., Blarney, T., Hancock, P., & Black, R. J.

      Mills, D. H., Chu, T. J., Lee, C. L., Hart, S. A., Star, J. Z., Taft, W. T., . . . Rand, L.

    • 6

      Cite organizations as the author of your reference when applicable. If the author is unknown, lead off the entry with the title of the document followed by the year of publication.

      American Institute of Architects (2009).

      Roget's Thesarus (100th ed.). (1993). New York: Little, Brown and Company.

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