What is a Bibliography

A bibliography can be defined as a list of sources such as books and scholarly articles that can be found in papers based on research. This usually appears at the end of such documents. As a result, a bibliography is something that is found in almost any research paper. Whether it be a dissertation, journal or in fact, any educational publication, a bibliography containing the various sources that it gleaned its information from can be found at the end of the paper. 

These entries are written in a hanging indent style. Here, while the first line of each citation is not indented, subsequent lines of each citation are indented.

There are various formats for writing a bibliography and often, these formats are determined by the teacher or supervisor of the student. Some of the most commonly used forms are MLA, APA or Turabian styles.

Bibliography entries typically consist of the author, title of the source, publication information and the date. Also, the entries are usually listed in the alphabetical order, according to the last name of the author. However, if two works by the same author is to be listed, the order shall depend upon the style of writing.

For example, when it comes to the Turabian and MLA styles, the entries are listed in the alphabetical order according to the title of the work discussed. However, in the APA style, the entries are listed in the chronological order of publication where the earliest are placed first.

The main purpose of a bibliography is to give due credits to the authors whose work has been cited in the research. The other most important reason is to enable the reader to do some further reading upon the subject if he or she wishes to do so.

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