There are four main styles that are typically used for bibliographies. These are the CBE bibliography style, the Chicago Manual of Style, APA Style and MLA style.
CBE bibliography style starts at the end of the writing on the last page of the document, as opposed to starting on a new page. Titles are left aligned and all entries are single-spaced. All references in CBE style are listed according to the order in which they make their appearance in the document.
The Chicago Manual of Style dictates that the bibliography should begin on a new page. References are listed alphabetically by author's last name and are double-spaced. The exception is if the author is unknown, the title is used instead. The first word of the title is the only one that will be capitalized according to the CMS rules. All lines following the line with the author's name are indented.
APA style starts on a separate page with double-spacing between each entry. The top of the page should be labeled References, without making use of any quotation marks, underlining or other title effects, other than centering the title at the top of the page. Items are listed alphabetically according to author's last name. All major words in the title should be capitalized, and the title must be in italics unless it is a smaller work (such as a newspaper article).
MLA style is very similar to the APA guide. The only major difference between the two is that bibliographies conforming to MLA style will say Works Cited, centered at the top of the page, instead of saying "References." The other difference is that MLA style allows titles to be either italicized or underlined, whereas APA does not provide an option to underline titles.
If you are creating the bibliography as part of a work that will be published, consult the publisher about its choice of bibliography style guide.
The best way to construct a bibliography is to do it as you write your primary piece. Alternatively, you can construct a bibliography while proofreading. Each time an individual, book, article, journal or other item is cited as source material for what you have written, that item should be added to the bibliography.
The bibliography is listed according to the author's name. Authors are listed alphabetically, last name first. If more than one item from the same author is referenced, they will be listed in the order of the dates they were published.
Proper capitalization of titles is important. All major words in a title should be capitalized. Conjunctions, prepositions and other small words should remain in lower case, unless they are the first word in a title or sub-title. Titles should be either italicized or underlined, according to the style guide the bibliography conforms to. If it is a "small title," such as the name of a poem, the title should also be enclosed in quotation marks.