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Writing a Bibliography: What Does it Entail?

Bibliography writing involves arranging material in an alphabetical order in preparation of an assignment. Such a bibliography can be seen in publications where the author has added critical or explanatory notes in his or her work. The annonation is usually a brief description of the book or article cited of about 150 words which is then followed by an evaluation of the writer. But why use a bibliography in the first place when you are referring to external sources of information ratehr than than just quote from the source material?

One of the reasons why this is done is to acknowledge and give credit to the source of the words, ideas, illustrations or whatever material that has been paraphrased or summarized. Bibliography writing also shows that you are respecfully borrowing others’ ideas and is a proof that you are not plagiarizing. It also serves the purpose of offering your readers additional information so that they ca pursue the topic more fully. Bibliography writing is also a professional way of telling your readers that your content is accurate and is in harmony with respected sources. Giving your readers the opportunity to authenticate your work by checking out outside sources inspires confidence in your writing. Additionally, if you are writing a term paper, the teacher may insist that you have a certain number of references in your work otherwise you will have marks deducted.

Now that we have good reasons for writing a bibliography, what should be included in a bibliography? The thing to have is the author. Generally, titles, designations and degrees are ignored. The title of the publication is also an important consideration in bibliography writing. The title on the tile page sould be used for any citations. The title and subtitle of an external sources used should be underlined. If the title of a quoted newspaper does not indicate the place of publication, you should add the city of publication after the title in square brackets in the format: National Geographic[New York].

When referring to a title or subtitle of an article, capitalize the first word of the tile as well as all other important words in the title except conjuctions and prepositions. When used together, the title and subtitle should be separated with a colon. During publication, be sure to write down the Publisher and not the Printer otherwise indicate the absence of the publisher with an ‘n.p’ abbreviation indicating ‘no publisher’.

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