The Bibliography page is an alphabetical list of all the sources you used when writing your paper.
Here are some basic rules to follow when creating your Bibliography:
- The Bibliography page should be placed at the end of your paper on a new page.
- The page number should be in the top right corner in the header.
- Center the heading Bibliography a few spaces down from the top of the page.
- Two blank lines should be after the Bibliography heading, and before the first entry on the list.
- Use one blank line between each entry.
- Each entry should be single spaced and the second line of each entry should be a hanging indent. To get this in MS Word:
- Select all text, and then right-click it.
- From the pop-up menu, select Paragraph.
- To double-space the text, under Spacing, Line Spacing, select Single.
- To add a hanging indent, under Indentation, Special, select Hanging. This indents the lower lines of each entry 0.5” from the left.
- Alphabetize each entry by author’s last name, or if the author’s name is not given, by the title of the work.
- When you are citing multiple works by an author, you can include a long dash as a substitute for the author's name.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Signifying Monkey:
A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
-----. American Behind the Color Line: Dialogues
with African Americans. New York: Warner Books, 2004.
Note: Your Bibliography usually contains all research sources used for your paper, regardless of whether you cited the source or not. A Selected Bibliography can contain only the sources you cited. An Annotated Bibliography includes a brief description of the source's content or why it was revelant to your research.