Preparing and compiling the bibliography

Before you start

• Ask your lecturer which bibliographic referencing style you should use.
• You need to establish what bibliographic details (information) are required for the various types of information sources that you might use, e.g. books, periodical articles, videos, interviews, etc. See below: "Compiling the bibliography".
• As soon as you consult a source take note of the bibliographic detail which you will find on the TITLE PAGE and the IMPRINT PAGE (back of the title page) of the book. See example.
• Note that a bibliography is always listed in alphabetical order by author or title in the case of no author.
• "A", "an" and "the" ("'n", "die" in Afrikaans) are ignored in the filing, e.g. The book of trees is filed under b for "book" and not under t for "the".
• The main entry, i.e. the name of the author or the title (if the author is unclear) should be in lower case. The important thing is to be consistent.
• As soon as you have consulted a book/journal/newspaper etc., record the bibliographic details. See Writing an essay/assignment: Reading, making notes & RefWorks. Use the referencing style you have chosen, e.g., Harvard or APA.
  
  
• NB. Punctuation and spacing are vitally important. This is not a matter of individual choice. It is essential that you are consistent in your punctuation, underlining, italicising, spacing and use of abbreviations. These are internationally accepted academic conventions, and not a matter of personal preference.

Compiling the bibliography

	Example of a book and its entry in a bibliography		Abbreviations for the states in the USA
	The elements required for the bibliographic entries		Links to useful web sites on referencing
	Examples of items as they should be listed in the bibliography - Harvard - APA - Vancouver - Chicago