Ever wondered how to write a bibliography for an assignment, only to find yourself lost in a series of confusing formatting rules? Worry not. In this blog, we shed light onto every confusing aspect or mystery around writing a bibliography for an assignment. By the end of reading this blog, you will be confident to write a clear and impactful bibliography for your assignment. Ready to dive in? Let’s start the journey.
What is a Bibliography?
A bibliography is a list of resources you have referred to for insights while preparing your assignments. It must include both the books/other materials you have referenced in your paper as well as the ones you have simply read and got inspired to develop your thoughts.
What Significance Does Bibliography Have in Assignment?
A bibliography plays a significant role in demonstrating that you have done valid research for preparing your assignment. It gives credit to the authors of the sources you have relied on and makes it easier for anyone who, after reading your assignment, wants to know more about the topic.
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Types of Bibliography Used in Assignment
There are different bibliography types. Depending on the nature and requirement of your assignment, you might be asked to use a certain type of bibliography. Let’s explore the common types of bibliography.
Analytical Bibliography
For writing this type of bibliography, you will need to analyse the sources in depth, focusing on their historical context, textual alterations and physical features. This method covers everything from the manuscript to the published book.
Annotated Bibliography
In an annotated bibliography, the author provides a short note regarding the sources which have been relied on to help the reader understand their quality and relevance.
Enumerative Bibliography
It is the most commonly used type of bibliography where the author lists details about the sources using different methods such as the name of the author, name of the title or publication date. There are 4 types of enumerative bibliographies such as:
National Bibliography:
National bibliography is a bibliography method where you list publications from a certain country.
Personal Bibliography:
A personal bibliography helps to catalogue publications by an individual author. It gives a general overview of their works and thus assists enthusiasts in researching the authors’ contributions.
Corporate Bibliography:
Corporate bibliography helps list publications that an organization or institution has published in a certain field.
Subject Bibliography:
Subject bibliography is a bibliography writing method where you list the sources by topic or subject area. Researchers who refer to this bibliography get a curated list of materials important to their subject interests.
Single-Author Bibliography
Single-Author Bibliography lists only the works done by a certain author. Scholars who want to know what other works that an individual author has offered to the subject or any other subject, get a quick overview.
Selected Bibliography
Selected Bibliography lists a collection of sources regarded as important within a certain field. Using a selected bibliography, researchers can find key texts and resources more easily.
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How to Structure a Bibliography?
Despite multiple types of bibliographies and specific guidelines for formatting them, the fundamental structure of the bibliography remains the same. Here are a few things you might find useful in this regard.
- Make sure that the header of your bibliography page is formatted as per the specific style guide you are following.
- Choose the same font you are using for the assignment as the font for your bibliography.
- Double-spacing is a standard practice for bibliography, so use it.
- Follow alphabetical order when listing your sources.
What are the Different Citation Styles Used in the Bibliography?
For referring to the sources that you are using in your bibliography, you can make use of any of the four common citation styles – Chicago Style, MLA style, APA style or Harvard Style. Let’s look at each of these styles and examples of bibliography in each.
Chicago Style:
CMS citation format or Chicago Manual Style is mostly used by students of history and humanities subjects. It allows two citation systems: the notes and bibliography system and the author-date system. In the former, you cite the sources in footnotes or endnotes, followed by a bibliography at the end. In the latter, you use in-text citations for the author’s last name and the publication year, followed by a corresponding reference list at the end.
Chicago style format citation E.g.: Last Name, First Name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year.
MLA Style:
Modern Language Association or MLA reference citation style is ideal for subjects like humanities, literature or languages. In MLA style, you can include the author’s last name and the page number(s) of the source as in-text citations. The works cited page lists full details for all cited sources in the text. You must use concise parenthetical citations when choosing to go with the MLA citation method. What do MLA citations look like? Look below:
Last Name, First Name. Book Title. Publisher, Year.
APA Style:
What is an APA style reference? APA stands for American Psychological Association. APA style is a popular citation style used especially for social sciences subjects like Psychology, Education and Sociology. When you use this style, you can use the author’s last name and the publication year as in-text citations. The list that appears as corresponding to this provides full details of each source cited in the text.
APA reference citation E.g.: Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Book Title. Publisher.
Harvard Style:
The Harvard Referencing style is a versatile author-date system. It requires in-text citations with the author’s last name and publication year. A detailed reference list accompanies it. As a highly flexible referencing method, you can easily adapt it to your preferred formatting style. Hence, it is regarded as the most widely used formatting style for academic writing.
Last Name, First Initial. (Year). Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.
Please note that the above examples of bibliography are reference purposes only. The actual bibliography may slightly vary depending on the source, and other factors.
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How To Write a Bibliography for An Assignment While Citing from Different Sources?
For your assignment preparation, you may be using a variety of sources like websites, research papers, dissertations, books or journals. For every reference source that you are using, you are supposed to add an entry in the bibliography. Here is how you must write a bibliography for each source.
How To Write A Bibliography While Citing From A Book?
For citing books, you can use the below bibliography format:
Start with the last name followed by the first name of the author. Write the publication year and the city of publication after that. At the end, write the title of the book.
How To Write A Bibliography While Citing From A Website?
To write a bibliography while you cite any website, use the following format:
Write the name of the author who has written the content on the website. Follow that up with the last date and year when the particular website link was updated. Next to that, write the page title in italics, the name of the website, the date on which you visited the website and the site URL in brackets.
How To Write A Bibliography While Citing From A Research Paper?
For writing a bibliography when citing from a research paper, follow the below procedure:
Write the author’s name at first followed by the date on which it was published. Write the publisher’s name, website URL, volume and page numbers you have referred to in the following lines.
How To Write A Bibliography While Citing From A Dissertation?
You can refer to an existing dissertation as a source for your assignment and the bibliography in such contexts must be as follows:
Start with the name of the author and then write the title of the dissertation. After that, write the name of the publisher accompanied by the place name where the dissertation was published and the data of publishing. If you have referred to multiple pages, mention each page number.
How To Write A Bibliography While Citing From A Journal?
The format to use when citing from a journal article is as follows:
Write the author’s last name followed by first name, publishing year and title of the article in single inverted commas. Follow that with the journal’s volume, issue number and page numbers.
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Conclusion
Well done! You’ve mastered the art of how to write a bibliography for an assignment. We’re thrilled to have simplified the process for you, making bibliography writing a breeze. If you have any lingering questions about the topic or any terms covered here, don’t hesitate to reach out. Feel free to drop your questions in the comments section below, and we’ll be more than happy to provide clarification.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What Is A Preliminary Bibliography?
A Preliminary Bibliography is a rough list of sources you plan to use for your research in the initial stage of your project. As you progress with the research, you may modify this list to add more sources or remove anything from the list.
What Is A Bibliography Card?
A bibliography card, also known as a source card, is an index card where you mark basic bibliographic details about the sources used in research, for instance, author name, title, publication date, etc. With this card, you can quickly organise or track sources.
How To Present A Bibliography?
You would typically present a bibliography as a list of cited sources. It should be given at the end of your assignment. For each entry under the bibliographic, you must write source details such as the author’s name, title of the source, publisher’s name and date of publication. Whether you start with the authors’ last name or the title of the source, you would follow the alphabetical order in the bibliography.
How is bibliography written for assignment?
If you are looking to write a bibliography for your assignment, first, make a list of all the sources you are planning to use in your research. You can use books, articles, websites, research papers, dissertations etc. Next, format your bibliography according to the citation style specified by your instructor. Once you have all the entries ready, arrange them alphabetically.
Is The Bibliography And Reference The Same?
While both reference list and bibliography are used with more or less similar meanings, one must realize that there are differences between the two terms. The bibliography is a scientific way of listing the sources while a reference list might not follow a certain format and would only give you information about the sources such as who the writer is, source title etc.
What Is The Difference Between A Literature Review And A Bibliography?
A literature review gives you an overview of an existing research on a topic while a bibliography lists all sources relied on for writing a project. It doesn’t give any analysis of the sources.
