What is a Bibliography or Works Cited Page

What is a Bibliography or Works Cited Page? (And How Do I Make One? )

A Bibliography or Works Cited Page lists all the sources used during the preparation of a report or presentation.

Why bother? Any time you use someone else’s WORDS, IDEAS, or IMAGES, you need to give that person (or website) credit. You do this via a parenthetical citation AND your bibliography or works cited page. If you do not give credit, you commit PLAGIARISM!

Parenthetical Citation In the body of your paper, you credit your source by name and/or page number, if available, or by the first key word in the title. You put this information in parentheses ( ) or you state it in the sentence.

Parenthetical Citation Example A columnist for Time magazine claims that Obama has put together the best campaign among the three contenders and “proved himself the best executive by far” (Klein, 23). Obama wrote in his memoir Dreams from My Father that “A handful of black men…would teach me an attitude that didn’t just have to do with the sport” (79).

Where in my report do I put my Bibliography / Works Cited Page? The Bibliography always comes at the very end of the report or presentation. Create a page just for this information.

What is a “citation”? The information about each source in a bibliography is its “citation. ” Citations come in several different standard formats.

What are these citation formats? MLA Style, from the Modern Language Association, is the one most widely used for non-technical writing. Most likely it will be the one your teacher will ask you to use. APA Style was created by the American Psychological Association to use in all of the books and journals that it publishes. It is not generally used in high schools but is commonly used in universities. Although the above formats are the most common ones, there are others. Your teacher will tell you if you are to use something other than MLA or APA to cite your sources or format your paper.

How do I format the citation? The following are very important in any citation: Information such as the: Author Title Publisher Date Page number(s) Web page title and URL address, etc. All the above must be placed in a specified order following indentation and punctuation rules. The rules can vary for different types of citations. This is why you need to follow a citation guide.

An example of how a citation should look. Citations are written in a “hanging indent” format. The first line begins on the far left margin and goes to the far right of the page. All subsequent lines are indented ½ inch on the left but go to the right margin.

The following items, if available, are always placed in this order: Author’s last name, author’s first name. Book title. City where the book was published: Publisher, copyright date. (Notice the “hanging indent” and the punctuation used after each item. )

May I put the citations in any order on my works cited page? No! Citations must be alphabetized by the first word in the citation

Basic Examples Book Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995.

Basic Examples Magazine Klein, Joe. “In the Arena. ” Time. 25/02/08: 23.

Basic Examples Website Graham-Felsen, Sam. “Barack in Plainfield, Indiana: ‘We have to come together. ’” Change We Can Believe In. 15/03/08. Obama ’ 08. 17/03/08. <http: //www. barackobama. com/index. php>

Basic Examples Database “Likeability’s limits. ” Washington Times, The. (2008): A 16. 07. Feb. 2008. http: //search. ebscohost. com.

Basic Examples Interview Young, Anthony. Personal interview. 17/03/08.

Example—Works Cited “Barack Obama. ” Contemporary Black Biography. Vol. 49. (2005). 07/03/08. http: //galenet. galegroup. com/servlet/Bio. RC Klein, Joe. “In the Arena. ” Time. 25/02/2008: 23. Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995.

How do I cite an Internet image? If you get an image from the Internet, all you need to do is type the web address in 9 pt font beneath the image: http: //images. google. com/images? hl=en&q=obama&gbv=2

Computer Art If you use an image that came with your computer, such as clip art, you do not need to cite your source

Where can I get help? Web sites: http: //www. citationcreation. com/mla http: //owl. english. purdue. edu/ http: //honolulu. hawaii. edu/legacylib/mlahcc. html Ask your teacher or see Ms. Nix in the library