Writing A Bibliography

Writing a Bibliography
APA Format
In-Text Citations
• When citing in APA format in the text of your
paper, use the author's name followed by the
date of publication.
• For example, if you were to cite Sigmund
Freud's book The Interpretation of Dreams, you
would use the following format: (Freud, 1900).
• The extended information on the source should
then appear in your reference section.
Basics
• Your list of works cited should begin at the end of the
paper on a new page with the centered title,
References.
• Alphabetize the entries in your list by the author's last
name, using the letter-by-letter system (ignore spaces
and other punctuation.)
• Only the initials of the first and middle names are
given.
• If the author's name is unknown, alphabetize by the
title, ignoring any A, An, or The.
Basics
• For dates, spell out the names of months in the
text of your paper, but abbreviate them in the list
of works cited, except for May, June, and July.
• Use either the day-month-year style (22 July
1999) or the month-day-year style (July 22, 1999)
and be consistent.
• With the month-day-year style, be sure to add a
comma after the year unless another
punctuation mark goes there.
Underlining or Italics?
• When reports were written on typewriters, the names
of publications were underlined because most
typewriters had no way to print italics.
• If you write a bibliography by hand, you should still
underline the names of publications. But, if you use a
computer, then publication names should be in italics
as they are below.
• Always check with your instructor regarding their
preference of using italics or underlining. Our
examples use italics.
Hanging Indentation
• All APA citations should use hanging indents
– the first line of an entry should be flush left, and
the second and subsequent lines should be
indented 1/2".
Capitalization, Abbreviation, and Punctuation
• The APA guidelines specify using sentence-style

capitalization for the titles of books or articles, so
you should capitalize only the first word of a title and
subtitle.
• The exceptions to this rule would be periodical titles
and proper names in a title which should still be
capitalized.
• The periodical title is run in title case, and is followed
by the volume number which, with the title, is also
italicized.
Capitalization, Abbreviation, and Punctuation
• If there is more than one author, use an ampersand

(&) before the name of the last author.
• If there are more than three authors, list only the
first one and use et al. for the rest.
• Place the date of publication in parentheses
immediately after the name of the author.
• Place a period after the closing parenthesis.
• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around
the titles of shorter works within longer works.
Format Examples
Books
Format:
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Book title. Additional information. City of publication:
Publishing company.
Examples:
Allen, T. (1974). Vanishing wildlife of North America. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.
Boorstin, D. (1992). The creators: A history of the heroes of the imagination. New York: Random
House.
Nicol, A. M., & Pexman, P. M. (1999). Presenting your findings: A practical guide for creating tables.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Searles, B., & Last, M. (1979). A reader's guide to science fiction. New York: Facts on File, Inc.
Toomer, J. (1988). Cane. Ed. Darwin T. Turner. New York: Norton.

Format Examples
Encyclopedia & Dictionary
Format:
Author's last name, first initial. (Date). Title of Article. Title of Encyclopedia (Volume, pages). City of publication:
Publishing company.
Examples:
Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Chicago:
Encyclopedia Britannica.
Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
Pettingill, O. S., Jr. (1980). Falcon and Falconry. World book encyclopedia. (pp. 150-155). Chicago: World Book.
Tobias, R. (1991). Thurber, James. Encyclopedia americana. (p. 600). New York: Scholastic Library Publishing.
Format Examples
Magazine & Newspaper Articles
Format:
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Article title. Periodical title, volume number(issue number if
available), inclusive pages.
Note: Do not enclose the title in quotation marks. Put a period after the title. If a periodical includes a volume number, italicize it
and then give the page range (in regular type) without "pp." If the periodical does not use volume numbers, as in newspapers,
use p. or pp. for page numbers.
Note: Unlike other periodicals, p. or pp. precedes page numbers for a newspaper reference in APA style.
Examples:
Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and
Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.
Henry, W. A., III. (1990, April 9). Making the grade in today's schools. Time, 135, 28-31.
Kalette, D. (1986, July 21). California town counts town to big quake. USA Today, 9, p. A1.
Kanfer, S. (1986, July 21). Heard any good books lately? Time, 113, 71-72.
Trillin, C. (1993, February 15). Culture shopping. New Yorker, pp. 48-51.

Format Examples
Website or Webpage
Format:
Online periodical:
Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
number, Retrieved month day, year, from full URL
Online document:
Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of work. Retrieved month day, year,
from full URL
Note: When citing Internet sources, refer to the specific website document. If a
document is undated, use "n.d." (for no date) immediately after the document
title.
Break a lengthy URL that goes to another line after a slash or before a period.
Continually check your references to online documents.
There is no period following a URL.
Note: If you cannot find some of this information, cite what is available.
Format Examples
Website or Webpage
Examples:
Devitt, T. (2001, August 2). Lightning injures four at music festival. The Why? Files. Retrieved January
23, 2002, from http://whyfiles.org/137lightning/index.html
Dove, R. (1998). Lady freedom among us. The Electronic Text Center. Retrieved June 19, 1998, from
Alderman Library, University of Virginia website: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/afam.html
Note: If a document is contained within a large and complex website (such as that for a university or a
government agency), identify the host organization and the relevant program or department before giving
the URL for the document itself. Precede the URL with a colon.
Format Examples
Website or Webpage
Examples:
Fredrickson, B. L. (2000, March 7). Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and well-
being. Prevention & Treatment, 3, Article 0001a. Retrieved November 20, 2000, from
http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre0030001a.html
GVU's 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved August 8, 2000, from
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/usersurveys/survey1997-10/
Health Canada. (2002, February). The safety of genetically modified food crops. Retrieved March 22, 2005,
from http://www.hchc.gc.ca/english/protection/biologics_genetics/gen_mod_foods/genmodebk.html
Hilts, P. J. (1999, February 16). In forecasting their emotions, most people flunk out. New York Times.
Retrieved November 21, 2000, from http://www.nytimes.com

Sample Bibliography: APA Reference List
Format
References
Battery. (1990). Encyclopedia britannica. (pp. 100-101). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.
Best batteries. (December 1994). Consumer Reports Magazine, 32, 71-72.
Booth, Steven A. (January 1999). High-Drain Alkaline AA-Batteries. Popular Electronics, 62, 58.
Brain, Marshall. How batteries work. howstuffworks. Retrieved August 1, 2006, from http://home.howstuffworks.com/battery.htm
Cells and batteries. (1993). The DK science encyclopedia. New York: DK Publishing.
Dell, R. M., and D. A. J. Rand. (2001). Understanding batteries. Cambridge, UK: The Royal Society of Chemistry.
Learning center. Energizer. Eveready Battery Company, Inc. Retrieved August 1, 2006, from http://www.energizer.com/learning/default.asp
Learning centre. Duracell. The Gillette Company. Retrieved July 31, 2006, from http://www.duracell.com/au/main/pages/learning- centre-
what-is-a-battery.asp
Summary
• Begin on a new page
• Alphabetical order
• Flush with left margin
• Double spaced
• All sources cited should appear both in-text and on the
reference page.
– Any reference that appears in the text of your report or article must
be cited on the references page, and any item appearing on your
reference page must be also included somewhere in the body of
your text.
• Titles of books, journals, magazines, and newspapers should
appear in italics.
Enjoy writing!!!

Writing A Bibliography

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Writing A Bibliography

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Writing A Bibliography

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Writing a Bibliography

• The APA guidelines specify using sentence-style

• If there is more than one author, use an ampersand

Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Toomer, J. (1988). Cane. Ed. Darwin T. Turner. New York: Norton.

Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Trillin, C. (1993, February 15). Culture shopping. New Yorker, pp. 48-51.

23, 2002, from http://whyfiles.org/137lightning/index.html

Alderman Library, University of Virginia website: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/afam.html

Retrieved November 21, 2000, from http://www.nytimes.com

Battery. (1990). Encyclopedia britannica. (pp. 100-101). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.

Best batteries. (December 1994). Consumer Reports Magazine, 32, 71-72.

Cells and batteries. (1993). The DK science encyclopedia. New York: DK Publishing.

You might also like