Collect the necessary information. The three main writing styles for academic papers are Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), and "The Chicago Manual of Style" (CMS). Their formats differ, but they all require a book's author, title, the place and date of publication, and the publisher.
All works cited pages are listed alphabetically by author, indenting every entry line except the first.
Locate the relevant data. Find publishers, publication dates, and places on the title page/copyright page. Large cities, such as New York and Chicago, do not need to be followed by the state in which they are located.
Include the name of the other others, editors, or translators (if applicable).
Arrange the entry for an MLA or CMS paper. Start with the author's name (last name first), followed by the books title, placing a period after each part. List the place of publication and the publisher, separating them with a colon. Place a comma after the publisher and list the date. The only difference between a MLA and CMS bibliography is the book's title. MLA works cited pages require a title to be underlined, and CMS italicizes titles.
Example:
Govinda, Anagarika. Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness. Wheaton, Illinois:
Theosophical Publishing House, 1976.
List multiple authors as they are listed on the book. Reverse only the first author's name (last name first), and leave the rest of the authors' names in normal order (first name first). For books with an editor and no author, place a comma after the authors listing and write 'ed,' followed by a period.
Use the same information for APA papers, but in a different format. Start with the author's last name (use only the first letter of the first name), and a period. Follow with the date in parenthesis. Italicize the book's title next, and another period. Include the place of publication and publisher, separated by a colon.
Example:
Govinda, A. (1976). Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness. Wheaton, Illinois: Theosophical Publishing House.
For multiple authors, place the last name first for all of them, and separate with an ampersand (&), between two authors, or between the second to last and final authors. Place 'Ed.' for a book with an editor in parenthesis after the name, separated by periods.
Example:
Bronfen, E. (Ed.). (2001).