How to Write Bibliography for Assignment: Tips on Working with Your Sources

The most tedious and time-consuming part of any school or college written assignment is the bibliography. Sometimes, it can even be challenging! For example, if you’re confused by the variety of citation styles. That is why Custom-Writing experts prepared a brief guide about creating a perfect bibliography for a project. Some tips regarding the formatting are also included!

First of all, you shouldn’t be worried about how to write this dreadful part of your assignment. A bibliography is just a list of all the sources, such as books and articles, that you have used for creating your project. No matter how short your writing task is, you will most likely need to add a list of references.

📍 What Is a Bibliography?

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!

Most of the time, your teacher would request to collect at least three printed sources, so try not to rely on the Internet solely.

🎓 Bibliography for College Assignment

If you’re a college student, making a simple list of references won’t always be enough. In many cases, the professor may require you to compose an annotated bibliography of resources you have used in the process of research. What format should this form of an extended bibliography follow?

Typically, it consists of two parts:

1. Bibliographical entry. The entry lists all the bibliographical details of the used source in line with the referencing style you’re using (e.g., MLA, APA, Harvard, etc.)
2. Annotation. The annotation part is a detailed description of the source’s content and its relevance for your academic paper.

While the bibliographical entry format depends on the citation style your discipline requires, annotation usually includes the following:

• Content summary. The first couple of sentences cover the overall content of the source by presenting topic, main arguments, and other general details.
• Evaluation. The second part of the annotation evaluates the content in terms of credibility, quality, author credentials, and usefulness for your project.
• Reaction. The final part of the annotation recaps the source’s relevance to your study and how it matches your research goal and content.

The annotated bibliography is organized similarly to a regular reference list. It should be arranged in alphabetical order, with the first line placed with zero indentation on the page and its consecutive lines (including the annotation) placed 0.5 inch indented.

As a rule, the annotation size ranges from 80-100 to 200+ words, depending on the professor’s prompt. It is one paragraph long and covers all three aspects explained above.

What Is a Preliminary Bibliography?

A preliminary bibliography is basically the draft of all the sources you think might help your research. You create it when you are still unfamiliar with the topic and scanning all the available sources. It’s not the final version of your bibliography since you might find some of the books not as helpful as you thought and never use them.

👣 How to Write a Bibliography Step by Step

Now you know what a bibliography is. It is time to learn how to write it! We assure you: there is nothing complicated. Follow the steps below.

Select the Sources

The first thing you need to do is find the proper sources for your research assignment. When selecting the sources, you should consider the questions below.

Evaluate Each Source

The next step in writing a bibliography is a brief assessment of each source’s importance.

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.

By the way, you may want to use the following questions for sources assessment.

Assess the Author’s Background and Credentials

When writing a bibliography for a project, you may need to examine the author’s credentials and experience. Here are some questions to help you.

Write a Summary for Each Source

Look through the following questions that will guide you. And don’t forget to search for the summarizing paragraphs. You may find them at the beginning or conclusion of each section. If there is none or you aren’t satisfied with its contents, you can take the role of a summary typer yourself and create your own custom summary.

Make a Proper Bibliography

Well, you’re almost there. You’ve evaluated your sources, took short notes, wrote an outline for each reference.

Use your notes and write your bibliography. How?

📑 How to Refer to Different Sources

You will have to use different writing patterns for different sources. Check these guidelines for bibliography writing:

1. Book with one author: Author’s last name, first name. Title of the book. City: Publisher, Date of Publication.

2. Book with two authors: Author’s last name, first name, and second author’s full name. Title of the book. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

3. Book without an author: Title of the book. City: Publisher, Date of Publication.

4. Article in a book without an author: Name of the article. Title of the book. City: Publisher, Date of Publication.

5. Book with an editor: Editor’s last name, first name, ed. Title of the book. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

6. Short story or chapter of a book: Author’s last name, first name. “Title.” Title of the book that the source comes from. Editor (ed.) of the book’s full name. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication. Pages of the source.

7. Encyclopedia article with an author/a signed article: Author’s last name, first name. “Title”. Encyclopedia Title. Volume Number. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

8. Encyclopedia article without an author/an unsigned article: “Title”. Encyclopedia Title. Volume number. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

9. Journal article: Author’s last name, first name “Article Title.” Name volume number:issue number (year of publication): page numbers.

10. Magazine article: Author’s last name, first name. “Article title.” Magazine title date of publication: page numbers.

11. Newspaper article: Author’s last name, first name. “Article title.” Newspaper title [city of publication, if not in title] date of publication, edition if necessary: section if necessary: page numbers.

12. Interview: Full name (last name first). Occupation. Date of interview.

13. Film: Title, Director, Distributor, Year.

14. Email message: Author of message, (Date). Subject of message. Electronic conference or bulletin board (Online). Available email: LISTSERV@ email address.

15. Web page: URL (Uniform Resource Locator or WWW address). Author (or item’s name, if mentioned), date.

🔨 Reference Generators

Nobody wants to do routine work. So you may want to use a citation builder for your assignment. Try one of the source-generating apps or websites below!

1. Cite This For Me.
   Cite This For Me is a great citation generator that allows you to make references in Harvard, APA, MLA, and other styles. All you have to do is scan a book’s barcode. Moreover, you may download your completed bibliography into MS Word format!
2. Cite.
   Cite generator is another excellent online tool for your papers. It supports various citation styles and offers templates to create a citation manually. Moreover, if you sign up, you can edit and save bibliography pages for future use.
3. Bibme.
   Bibme is an entirely free reference generator. You may create citations in various styles within just a few clicks and save your precious time.
4. Citefast.
   Citefast is an online reference maker and bibliography generator. It supports APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. By the way, you can use its feature and create a title page for your paper.
5. Citation Machine.
   Citation Machine is a powerful student app. Make a citation in various styles less than in a minute. All you have to do is to select the citation style, search for a source in auto or manual mode, and make a reference for your assignment!
6. Custom-Writing Reference Generator.
   Custom-Writing reference generator is a free and user-friendly tool. Create a bibliography in different styles and convert it into in-text citations in a wink!

🔥 Bibliography Assignment Example

MLA Format

Here is the basic formula you can use to build a reference entry for any source. The elements you need will depend on the type of work you’re citing:

Last name, First name (or Last name, First name, and First name Last name, or Last name, First name, et al.). “Title of Source.” Title of Container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Page or URL.

Check out an example of work cited entry of a book in MLA format:

APA Format

The main parts APA reference entry includes are the following:

Last name, I. I. (Date). Title of source. Title of container. Publisher. DOI

1. Author.
2. Date.
3. Title.
4. Source.

Here is a sample of bibliography entry of the same book as above, but in APA format:

Annotated Bibliography

By the way,

Have you checked our citation guidelines already?

🔗 References

1. Bibliography Definition by Cambridge English Dictionary
2. American Psychological Association Style
3. The Chicago Manual of Style Online
4. Information on DOI (digital object identifier)
5. Free DOI Lookup at Crossref
6. Writing a Bibliography as a Part of Research Paper
7. Evaluating Bibliographic Citations // Purdue Writing Lab
8. The Annotated Bibliography – Cornell
9. Bibliography – National Library of Medicine – NIH