How to Write an Effective Bibliographic Report

The American Psychological Association and the Modern Language Association have different style and formatting guidelines for writing bibliographies. But no matter what style or format you choose, it is important to know the basics of writing a bibliography itself before you do anything else.

Things You'll Need

  • The most up-to-date "Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers"
  • The most up-to-date "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association"
  • Research materials consisting of books, periodicals, websites and other multimedia
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Instructions

  1. How to Write a Bibliography in Basic Format

    • 1

      Write the last name of an author first. Then, write the author's first name and middle name or initial.

      Examples: Oates, Joyce Carol.
      Koontz, Dean.

      If he or she or both of them are the editor(s), then make sure you put a comma next to the author's first or middle name or middle initial, then note either ed. or eds.

      Examples: Heller, Steven, ed.
      Goodall, Jane and Dian Fossey, eds.

    • 2

      If a particular piece of research material has more than one author, then write your bibliography like this:
      "Author's Last Name, Author's First Name and Middle Name/Initial" and "First Name, Last Name," etc.

      Example: Travers, Peter and Kenneth Turan and Roger Ebert.

      If there are more than three authors, put "et al." next to the first author.

      Example: Travers, Peter, et al.

    • 3

      The title of a piece of research material comes either after you note the author(s), or at the very beginning of a bibliography containing materials with no authors. In addition, underline the title itself.

      Examples: Steel, Danielle. Ransom (underlined).
      Encyclopedia of Life (underlined).

    • 4

      If a piece of research material has a corporate author rather than a conventional author, note the name of the company, business, corporation or nonprofit organization before the title of the work. Make sure you write the corporate author name in its entirety (no acronyms).

      Example: The Journal of the American Medical Association. Sex Differences in Mortality Following Acute Coronary Syndromes (underlined).

    How to Write a Bibliography Consisting of Books

    • 5

      As you already know from Section 1, you have to write the author(s) and the (underlined) title of the book before anything else.

    • 6

      Write the city and/or state where the book was published.

      Example: Steel, Danielle. Ransom. New York:

    • 7

      Write the name of the publishing company who produced the hardcover and/or paperback edition of the book.

      Example: Steel, Danielle. Ransom. New York: Random House,

    • 8

      Write the year the hardcover or paperback edition of the book was published.

      Example: Example: Steel, Danielle. Ransom. New York: Random House, 2004.

    How to Write a Bibliography Consisting of Print and Electronic Periodicals

    • 9

      Unlike a book, a magazine or newspaper article's title is not underlined. Rather, the name of the magazine or newspaper company is underlined.

      Examples:

      Turan, Kenneth. "How's Old Burt Reynolds? Doing Fine, Thank You." New York Times (underlined)

      Sheets, Kenneth R. "If U.S. faced another oil embargo today." U.S. News & World Report (underlined)

    • 10

      Write the date the magazine or newspaper article was first published and if it is a late edition.

      Examples:

      Turan, Kenneth. "How's Old Burt Reynolds? Doing Fine, Thank You." New York Times (underlined) 1 Oct. 1989 late ed.

      Sheets, Kenneth R. "If U.S. faced another oil embargo today." U.S. News & World Report (underlined) 24 Oct. 1983

    • 11

      Write the page number where the magazine or newspaper article was found.

      Examples:

      Turan, Kenneth. "How's Old Burt Reynolds? Doing Fine, Thank You." New York Times (underlined) 1 Oct. 1989 late ed.: A17

      Sheets, Kenneth R. "If U.S. faced another oil embargo today." U.S. News & World Report (underlined) 24 Oct. 1983: 27.

    • 12

      If you happened to find an archived or updated magazine or newspaper article online, then list the database provider (underlined) and/or website developer (underlined) responsible for the retrieval of the article. Then, note the date in which you looked the article up online, as well as the Uniform Resource Locator for that article.

      Examples:

      Turan, Kenneth. "How's Old Burt Reynolds? Doing Fine, Thank You." New York Times (Underlined) 1 Oct. 1989 late ed.: A17. 27 Aug. 2009
      <http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/01/movies/film-how-s-old-burt-reynolds-doing-fine-thank-you.html>.

      Sheets, Kenneth R. "If U.S. faced another oil embargo today." U.S. News & World Report (Underlined) 24 Oct. 1983: 27. General OneFile (underlined). Gale. 27 Aug. 2009 <http://find.galegroup.com/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS>.

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