How to Write an APA Format Bibliography, how to write a bibliography for a research paper.

Not only is this step helpful in determining which sources to ultimately use in your paper, but also your instructor may require it as part of the assignment so they can assess your thought process and understanding of your topic.

Your working bibliography should be kept separate from the rest of your paper. Start it on a new page, with the title “Bibliography” centered at the top.

Compile all the sources you might possibly use in your paper. While you may end up not using all of these sources in your paper, having a complete list will make it easier later on when you prepare your reference section.

An annotation is a brief description of approximately 150 words describing the information in the research, your evaluation of its credibility, and how it pertains to your topic.   Writing one of these for each piece of research will make your writing process faster and easier.

Create an Annotation for Each Source

Emily is a fact checker, editor, and writer who has expertise in psychology content.

Your references should be listed alphabetically by the author’s last name and should be double-spaced. The first line of each reference should be flush left, while each additional line of the reference should be a few spaces to the right of the left margin, which is known as a hanging indent.

While writing an annotated bibliography might not be required for your assignment, it can be a very useful step. The process of writing an annotation helps you learn more about your topic, develop a deeper understanding of the subject, and become better at evaluating various sources of information.

Even if it is not a required part of your assignment, writing a bibliography can help you keep track of your sources and make it much easier to create your final reference page in proper APA format.

Find a few good sources for your research, and then expand by consulting the bibliographies of those sources. They will lead you to additional sources. The number of sources will depend on the depth of your research.

A teacher may require that you write an annotated bibliography as the first step of a big research assignment. You would most likely write an annotated bibliography first and then follow with a research paper using the sources you've found.

But you may find that your annotated bibliography is an assignment on its own: It can also stand alone as a research project, and some annotated bibliographies are published. A stand-alone annotated bibliography (one that is not followed by a research paper assignment) would most likely be longer than a first-step version.

• Thesis of the source is one you support or don't support
• Author has a unique experience or point of view related to your topic
• Source provides a sound basis for a paper you intend to write, leaves some questions unanswered, or has a political bias

How It Should Look

An annotated bibliography is an expanded version of a regular bibliography—those lists of sources you find at the end of a research paper or book. The difference is that an annotated bibliography contains an added feature: a paragraph or annotation under each bibliographical entry.

Write the annotated bibliography just like a normal bibliography, but add between one and five concise sentences under each bibliographical entry. Your sentences should summarize the source content and explain how or why the source is important. Things you might mention include whether the:

When you are doing an initial investigation of all of the sources available, your teacher may not expect you to read each source thoroughly. Instead, you likely will be expected to read parts of the sources to learn the essence of the content. Before beginning, check with your teacher to determine whether you have to read every word of every source that you plan to include.

The purpose of the annotated bibliography is to provide the reader with a complete overview of the articles and books that have been written about a certain subject. Learning some background about annotated bibliographies—as well as a few key steps to writing one—will help you to quickly create an effective annotated bibliography for your assignment or research paper.

While writing an annotated bibliography might not be required for your assignment, it can be a very useful step. The process of writing an annotation helps you learn more about your topic, develop a deeper understanding of the subject, and become better at evaluating various sources of information.

Emily is a fact checker, editor, and writer who has expertise in psychology content.

One of the biggest reasons to create an APA format bibliography is simply to make the research and writing process easier. If you do not have a comprehensive list of all your references, you might find yourself scrambling to figure out where you found certain bits of information that you included in your paper.

Compile all the sources you might possibly use in your paper. While you may end up not using all of these sources in your paper, having a complete list will make it easier later on when you prepare your reference section.

Reasons to Write a Bibliography

Bibliographies can be a great way to keep track of information you might want to use in your paper and as a way to organize and keep track of the information that you find in different sources. In order to write an APA format bibliography, here are four steps you should take.

Your working bibliography should be kept separate from the rest of your paper. Start it on a new page, with the title “Bibliography” centered at the top.

Even if it is not a required part of your assignment, writing a bibliography can help you keep track of your sources and make it much easier to create your final reference page in proper APA format.

An annotation is a brief description of approximately 150 words describing the information in the research, your evaluation of its credibility, and how it pertains to your topic.   Writing one of these for each piece of research will make your writing process faster and easier.

Jones, Edward and Amelia Smith. Strangers. New York: Random House, 1987.

In case you need a bibliography as part of an assignment, you should identify the reason why and the way how you want to use the source. If you’re assigned to write an annotated bibliography as an independent project, examine the source’s contribution to the research area.

Edward Jones, (May 23, 2006). New Winners. Teen Booklist (Online). Edward Jones@yahoo.com

We will write a custom essay specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page

Write a Summary for Each Source

Every time you use a book, magazine, or a webpage for your essay, you need to mention it in a special list called a bibliography. Even if you are not quoting the source but just using it for the general understanding of the topic, you should still include it there. For citing the source in the text, you would only need to write the author’s name and the publication date. Then, the reference about it goes into your bibliography, and that’s where extra information is needed. However, it would depend on the type of source and the citation style. In case you’re not familiar with the variety of the citation styles and the requirements, have a look at our guide, which can save you some time!

We will write a custom essays specifically
for you!

Writing a bibliography for a science project is usually no different from creating one for other assignments. It’s a list of the sources the student uses for completing their task. Every source mentioned in the bibliography needs to have some specific publication information as well.

Jones, Edward. “Learning to communicate.” The Toy. Ed. Helen Stevenson. New York: Random House, 1987.

If a bibliography entry extends onto more than one line, subsequent lines should be indented, as seen in the example below. This helps the reader to see at a glance where each new entry begins.

In the bibliography, list up to 10 authors. If there are more than 10, list the first seven followed by “et al.”

The reference list is headed “References.” In reference list entries, the publication date is placed immediately after the author’s name. This allows the reader to easily find a reference on the basis of the corresponding in-text citation.

In a Chicago footnote citation, when the author of a source is unknown (as is often the case with websites), start the citation with the title in a full note. In short notes and bibliography entries, list the organization that published it as the author.

Chicago style bibliography examples

• In a reference list entry, the publication year appears directly after the author’s name.
• In a bibliography entry, the year appears near the end of the entry (the exact placement depends on the source type).

For sources with more than one author, only the first author’s name is inverted

If you are using author-date in-text citations, or if the source was not accessed online, replace the date with “n.d.”

• the name of the author and or editor

  Regardless of the format you choose, here is the list of general recommendations for electronic and published sources:

  A bibliography usually includes all literature (books, articles from journals, etc.) and websites placed in alphabetical order.

  There are cases when the information about the materials makes students confused. Here are the examples of the most doubting issues regarding the formatting of the source.

  How to Structure a Bibliography

  The term bibliography includes formatting the sources in any writing style. However, they differ in academic writing. To get knowledge of proper formatting, students should study an official book that contains a detailed explanation and guiding recommendation. Here are the formatting standards accepted by the academic societies:

  Prepare for bibliography formatting in the light of developments during your research work without leaving it for last. Being the final page of the assignment, it demands special attention. Neglecting it will add extra work for double reviewing the used sources when your paperwork is ready. In case you do not have all the necessary details, add to your bibliography the available ones.

  • Modern Language Association (MLA) relates to literature and linguistic paperwork