Keep track of every source you use by writing it down on a 3-by-5-inch card as you work, including the following information: the author's name, title of publication (and the title of the article if it's a magazine or encyclopedia), and the date of the publication, place of publication, publishing company, volume number of magazine or printed encyclopedia, the page numbers, author and editor names (if available), the company or organization that posted the website, and the web address, or URL, for the page. This will save you time and energy doing it later.
For both the MLA format (in which the bibliography is referred to as "works cited") and the APA format (in which the bibliography is referred to as "references"), the bibliography appears at the end of the manuscript on its own page with the sources listed in alphabetical order according to the author's last name, using a letter-by-letter system, ignoring spaces and other punctuation and any "A," "An," or "The" that appears in the title.
For both APA and MLA formats, abbreviate the names of the months in the bibliography except for May, June and July, using a month-day-year style (July 22, 2010), with a comma after the year.
For both formats, the names of the publications should be in italics, and should appear in the bibliography with a hanging indent, i.e., the first line of each individual source with the author's name etc., should appear flush with the left page margin, and all proceeding lines in the source should be indented 1/2 inch.
If using the MLA format, capitalize the first word, last word, and all of the principal words in the title of the source, including those with hyphens; use the lower case for additional information such as volume number, page number, etc.
If using the APA format, capitalize only the first word of a title or subtitle, except periodical titles and proper names which should be capitalized.
When writing the final bibliography, separate the author's name, the title of publication, and other publication information with a period followed by a space.
If using the MLA format, write your sources in the final bibliography as follows:
for books:
Author's last name, first name. Book title (in italics). Additional information. City of
publication: Publishing company, publication date.
for magazines and newspapers:
Author's last name, first name. "Article title." Periodical title, volume # Date: inclusive
pages
for encyclopedias and dictionaries,
Author's last name, first name. "Title of Article." Title of Encyclopedia. Date
for websites and web pages:
Author's last name, first name. "Title of work within a project or database." Title of
site, project, or database. Edition (if available). Electronic publication
information (date of publication...last update...name of sponsoring institution).
Date of access and <full URL>.
If using APA sources, write your sources in the final bibliography as follows:
for books:
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Book title (in italics). Additional
information. City of Publication: Publishing company.
for magazines and articles:
Author's last name, first initial. (Publication date). Article title. Periodical title. volume number (issue, if available). inclusive pages.
for websites and web pages: for online periodicals:
Author's name. (Date of Publication). Title of article. Title of periodical, volume
number, retrieved month, day, year from full URL
for online documents:
Author's name. (Date of publication). Title of work. Retrieved month, day, year from
full URL.