What is the Difference Between Bibliography and Works Cited

The main difference between bibliography and works cited is that the bibliography includes all the literature referred or consulted for the scholarly work while the works cited include only the cited work in the academic paper.

Academic writing should be done after a good analysis and research on the facts or information. This information is therefore backed up with citations and references to external sources or literature that assists to prove these facts with substantial evidence. They ensure the accuracy and provide evidence to a presented fact. Therefore, in order to avoid plagiarism, these cited and referred sources have to be clearly presented in a standard manner. Bibliography and works cited are two such ways of doing that.

Key Areas Covered

1. What is a Bibliography 
     – Meaning, Significance, Content
2. What is Works Cited
     – Meaning, Significance, Content
3. What are the Similarities Between Bibliography and Works Cited
     – Outline of Common Features
4. What is the Difference Between Bibliography and Works Cited
     – Comparison of Key Differences

Key Terms

Academic Writing, Bibliography, Citations, Works Cited, Plagiarism

What is a Bibliography

Bibliography refers to the list of books or other articles referred to or cited in the academic paper or document. You can usually find this list at the end of the book or academic article, typically as an appendix.

Thus, bibliography essentially lists out all external literature referred or consulted to in the scholarly work. The bibliography is necessarily in academic or scholarly writing such as a published book, or an academic article, and not merely in a simple essay paper or even a research paper of an undergraduate.

Moreover, the lists of sources presented in the bibliography maybe the sources one has just consulted or referred while preparing the scholarly article or the book without necessarily citing them inside it.

Thus, a bibliography can include the list of books, scholarly articles, speeches, private records, diaries, interviews, laws, letters, websites, and other sources used or referred when researching a topic and writing a paper.

Components in  a Bibliography Entries

• the authors’ or editors (and translator, if applicable) names
• the titles of the works (as well as edition, volume, and the book title if the source is a chapter or article in a multi-author book with an editor)
• the names and locations of the companies that published the copies of the sources
• the dates the referred sources were published
• the page numbers of the consulted sources (if they are part of multi-source volumes)

An example of an entry in a bibliography under MLA style:

Bloom, Harold, ed. Twentieth-Century British Poets. New York: Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2011. Infobase Publishing eBooks. Web. 21 Dec. 2012.

These consulted literature have to present in a specific format: either MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian style, depending on the particular style of writing used in the article.

What is Works Cited

Works cited refers to the list of the cited works in the paper or the academic writing. These cited works, referred to as “Works Cited Page”, is usually a separate page at the end of the student’s paper/essay or the research paper.

Works cited is sometimes referred to as ‘References’ as well. However, works cited usually written in MLA style, and if it is written in APA, it goes under the title ‘References.”

These citations the students incorporated in writing can be either in direct quotes, rephrased summaries, incorporation of data or even general information, like statistics. All these that are cited have to be listed in the works cited page. Therefore, all research papers, projects, student essays, etc. should have works cited page to give credit to the sources refereed in writing.

Format of a Works Cited page

• Heading, “Works Cited” should be centered at the top of the page
• The list of sources by alphabetical order – last name first
• All words in a title except articles, coordinating conjunctions, prepositions, etc. are capitalized
• Quotation marks around titles of poems, articles, and short stories or web articles, etc.
• Italicize titles of longer works such as books and titles of websites
• The published details (not the state) and added a colon
• The publisher’s name followed by a comma, the year of publication, followed by a period
• The medium (print, Web, film, video, etc.)
• Date of access from the web

An example of an entry in the works cited under MLA style can be :

Clinton, Bill. Interview by Andrew C. Revkin. “Clinton on Climate Change.” New York Times. New York Times, May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.

In brief, works cited only contains materials that were actually referred to and cited in the student’s paper. This is on the last page of the document with the heading ‘Works Cited’. In other words, each source that is quoted, paraphrased or summarized in the student’s paper should appear as an entry in the Works Cited page.

Similarities Between Bibliography and Works Cited

• You can find both these pages typically at the end of an academic article or writing.
• The entries in both are in the alphabetical order either by the last name of the authors, editor or translator or by the first word of the source titles.

Difference Between Bibliography and Works Cited

Definition

Bibliography is the list of the external sources or materials referred to in a scholarly work, typically printed as an appendix. On the other hand, works cited is a list of only the sources or literature referenced in the body of an academic article.

Content

The major difference between bibliography and works cited is that bibliography necessarily includes all the consulted or referred literature sources in the book or academic article whereas works cited only includes the sources the student have cited in writing.

Usage

Moreover, bibliography is usually used in works with a higher academic purpose such as a published book or an academic paper while works cited is used in works with a comparatively lower academic purpose such as student essays, or academic research papers of undergraduates.

Place

An important difference between bibliography and works cited is that the bibliography is at the end of the academic paper, or published book whereas works cited is present at a separate page at the end of the writing.

Style

While bibliography should be written either in the MLA, APA, Chicago or Turabian style depending on the style of writing followed, works cited should be written in the MLA style. This is also a difference between bibliography and works cited.

Conclusion

Citation ensures that the information in the research paper is based on logic, truth, and facts. Bibliography and works cited are two academic writing sections that indicate that the academic paper is accurate and lacks plagiarism. Even though these two seem similar and are both necessary, there is a clear difference between bibliography and works cited based on the content. The main difference between Bibliography and Works Cited is bibliography includes all the literature referred or consulted for the scholarly work while works cited include only the cited work in the academic paper.

Reference:

1. “What’s a Bibliography?” Plagiarism or RSS, 7 June 2017, Available here.
2. Fleming, Grace. “What Should Your Bibliography Include?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 25 June 2018, Available here.
3. “Examples of Works Cited Pages.” YourDictionary, 11 July 2016, Available here.
4. “Works Cited, References, and Bibliography – What’s the Difference?” A Research Guide for Students, 6 Sept. 2018, Available here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Quiggin Dialect of Donegal 0004” By E. C. Quiggin (1875–1920) –  (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Bibliography” by Lauren Coleman (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr