Compiling the bibliography

Transcription

1 Compiling the bibliography A bibliography is a collection of references. More references means more detailed research and that is always good in technical writing. People will hardly listen to you if your arguments are not backed up by scientists from all over the world. There are three major sources from which you can get your bibliography. Here s what you need to note for each of these sources 1 : Types of sources Printed sources- books, encyclopedias, magazines, journal articles, newspapers, etc. (take careful note of the following for each of these sources): author name (this is the author of the article; for magazines and encyclopedias, you should also note the name of the main editor) title of publication (and the title of the article if it s a magazine or encyclopedia) date of publication (be consistent in the style of writing dates; we will be using the day-month-year style; for example: 7 February 1977) the place of publication of a book the publishing company of a book the volume number of a magazine or printed encyclopedia the page number(s) Internet sources: author and editor names (if available) title of the page (if available) the company or organization who posted the webpage the Web address for the page (called a URL) the last date you looked at the page (date of access) Personal communication (audio material, usually interviews): complete name of interviewee (if anonymity is not requested) relevant biodata of interviewee (age, gender, occupation, marital status, etc.) 2 exact date and time of the interview approximate locality of the interview It may sometimes be difficult to look for these in your chosen source. Here are a few places where you can look more closely for them: the title page of a book, a journal article, an encyclopedia or a dictionary the header or footer of an article the front, second, or editorial page of the newspaper the contents page of a journal or magazine the header (at the top) or footer (at the bottom) of a Web site the About or the Contact page of a Web site 1 Adapted from 2 Mention information that would make your source more credible. For example: when researching the difficulties of parenting, your interviewee would gain more authority if he/she is a parent as opposed to one who is single. Thus it is of paramount importance to choose your interviewees well. You wouldn t ask an ice cream vendor for his opinions on global warming right? In the same way, you would rather ask the ice cream vendor, instead of a rocket scientist, when researching the challenges of a small time entrepreneur. Page 1 of 5

2 Formatting your bibliography Each of your sources must be written in the correct format in your bibliography. Study the following examples carefully 3 : General formatting guidelines: All bibliographic entries must have a hanging indent of 0.5. See Plate # 1 for instructions on how this is done. Use title case capitalization capitalize the first words, the last words, and all principal words. Separate fields with only one space (this is opposite to the 2 spaces in between sentences when writing paragraphs). For example: Hill, J. and E. Nelson. Environmental, economic and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels. (Note the single space after the periods.). Book titles are italicized. Do not confuse this with article titles (in encyclopedias, magazines, journals, etc.). Use a colon and a space to separate a title from a subtitle. In the citation field, use et al. if there are more than two authors. Et al. is an abbreviation of the Latin Et alia which means and others. For two authors, format the bibliographic entry as follows: Hill, J. and E. Nelson. (Note the absence of a comma before and and the first name, last name order for the secondary author). For three or more authors, format the bibliographic entry as follows: Hill, J., E. Nelson and D. Tillman. (Note the absence of a comma before and and the first name, last name order for secondary authors). If the publication has an edition number, then place it after the title separated by a comma (e.g., Biology, 6 th ed). All dates must follow the day-month-year style (7 February 1977). For works already accepted for publishing but not yet actually published, then write In press in place of the volume and issue numbers. If any of these are missing, then proceed to the next available piece of information. But remember that the author field must not be left empty. As a last resort, you may use the name of the sponsoring organization or publisher. Books Author(s) [or editor(s)]. Year. Title. Publisher name, place of publication. Number of pages. Eusebio, M.A Pathology in Forestry. Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau, DENR, College, Laguna, Philippines. 521 pp. Baconguis, S. (ed.) Climate Change and Water Quality of Rivers. Bookman Publishing, Inc., Quezon Ave., Quezon City, Philippines. 342 pp. 3 Adapted from For more questions on the MLA format, visit Page 2 of 5

3 Chapter or section of a book Author(s) of chapter. Year. Title of chapter. In editors of book. Title of book. Publisher, place of publication. Inclusive pages of chapter. Dunbar, R. I. M The social ecology of Gelada baboons. In Rubenstein, D. I. and Wrangham, R.W., editors. Ecological Aspects of Social Evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Pp Encyclopedia & Dictionary Author's last name, first name 4. "Title of Article." Title of Encyclopedia. Date. Merriam-Webster. "Azimuthal Equidistant Projection." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed Pettingill, O., Jr. "Falcon and Falconry." World Book Encyclopedia Periodicals (Magazine, Newspaper, and Scientific Journal Articles) Author(s). Year. Article title. Periodical title, Volume number(issue number):inclusive pages. Hall, T IQ Scores Are Up, and Psychologists Wonder Why. New York Times, 24 February 1998, late ed.: F1+. Kalette, D. and R. David California Town Counts Down to Big Quake. USA Today, 9(21 July 1986):sec. A: 1. Kanfer, S Heard Any Good Books Lately? Time, 113(21 July 1986): Marquez, E.R., L. Calanog, S. Pader and M. Aparente Interplanting trees and cash crops as a method of controlling soil erosion. Sylvatrop, 10(2): Note that the author s name may not always be given. If so, use the name of the publisher or sponsoring organization (see first example- azimuthal equidistant projection; this is a dictionary entry and so has no author). Page 3 of 5

4 Paper in proceedings or conferences/seminars/symposia/conventions Author(s) of paper. Year. Title of paper. In editors of proceedings. Title of publication or name of conference or both, inclusive dates, place of conference. Publisher, place of publication. Inclusive pages of paper. Uriarte, M.S., M.R. Reyes and F.D. Virtucio Growth and yield equations of dipterocarp stands in Northern Luzon, Philippines. In Gomez, E.D., editor. Proceedings of the National Forestry Research Congress, April 1993, UP College of Forestry, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. Pp Thesis or dissertation Author. Date of degree. Title. Type of publication and degree. Location of Institution: Institution granting the degree. Number of pages. Gonzales, L.S Stand density as a function of different cutting regimes of Bambusa vulgaris. Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation, Forest Ecology. Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines: University of the Philippines Los Baños, College of Forestry. 159 pp. Website or Webpage Author's last name, first name (if available). "Title of work within a project or database." Title of site, project, or database. Editor (if available). Name of any sponsoring institution or organization. Date of publication or of the latest update. Date of access and <full URL>. Devitt, T. "Lightning injures four at music festival." The Why? Files. 2 August January 2002 < Dove, R. "Lady Freedom among Us." The Electronic Text Center. Ed. David Seaman Alderman Lib., U of Virginia. 19 June 1998 < Lancashire, I. Homepage. 28 March May 2002 < (Note that in this case, there is no title- it is simply the homepage of the author.) Page 4 of 5

5 Levy, S. "Great Minds, Great Ideas." Newsweek 27 May June 2002 < Personal communication Interviewee's last name, first name. Credentials 5. Pers com. Place of interview. Date of interview. Herrera, R. Instructor of high school physics. Pers com. Holistic Education and Development Center at the Little Farm House, Taytay, Rizal, Philippines. 7 May Bin Laden. Taliban leader. Pers com. Place of interview withheld. 1 January Characteristics of a good bibliography You must list all your references in alphabetical order in a piece of paper. Use the checklist below to determine if you have compiled a good list of references. Do I have the required 3 core scientific journal articles? This is the minimum for the synthesis paper. Your teacher may impose additional criteria like date of publication (e.g., journal articles must be dated 2000 or later). See Plate # 2 for a sample journal article. Do I have at least 30 sources? You are required to have at least one of each type of resource. Are all my sources relevant? Are all my sources credible? When in doubt, consult the credibility of your source with your teacher. Are all my bibliographic entries properly formatted? Pay attention to the smallest detail since this reflects on the scholarly quality of your paper. Do not expect scientists to take you seriously if you cannot even format your paper well. Notice that no check for redundancy has been made. There is no such thing as redundancy in technical writing. The validity (hence, the strength) of an argument often lies in the number of proofs available. If many scientists are arriving at the same conclusions as you, then your point must be pretty good. And so compile as many references as you can with an eye for those that can make your points even more sound. Making bibliography cards It is now time to transfer your bibliography into index cards for easy filing and organization. Note that your bibliography is never really final. You may still add references even up to the printing of your paper s final draft. Remember that there is no such thing as 5 It is important to establish the credibility of your interviewee. On what authority is he/she speaking? This is to be extensively done in the text of your paper and not in your bibliography. However, you must capsulize this in the bibliography by mentioning your interviewee s most important qualification. Why did you think of getting information from him/her in the first place? Page 5 of 5

6 too much in technical writing. You will be using a 3 x 5 index card for each of your references. Shown below is a sample biblio card. Citation 3 Card # Call # Bibliography Location Make sure that each of your biblio cards have the following: Citation: This is how your reference will be cited within the text. Author s last names are always used in the citation portion. For two authors or one, do not use a comma (example: Brown 2007; Brown and Le May 2007). If there are three or more authors, then format as follows: Brown et al (et al is an abbreviated form for the Latin et alia which means and others ). For web pages, the year must be year of access and not year of publication or latest update. Card #: This should be very obvious and clearly written. This is used to match the biblio card with all the notecards containing information you took from the reference. Call #: Applicable only to library books, this is used to easily locate your book Bibliography: This contains all the important information regarding your reference. This entry will be used at the end of your synthesis paper under the heading Literature Cited. Location: This is the mailing address of where the book can be found. Along with the Call #, this gives anyone who wishes to investigate the veracity of your paper to locate and peruse your references. As such, detailed biblio cards are a must for any conscientious researcher 6. 6 For more on compiling bibliographies and technical writing in general, visit Note however, that we are following the formatting guidelines found in this manual. The website nevertheless contains excellent tips on scholarly writing. Page 6 of 5