Compiling a Working Bibliography

The working bibliography is a list of the sources you find as you go along researching your paper. It will eventually evolve into the list of works cited that appears at the end of the paper. Use either small index cards or a computer file for this purpose. Enter the full information about each source, and then assign a number to the file. When you take your notes, you may simply label them with the number of the source, to prevent your having to write out all the information a second time.

Here’s the information you need:

BOOK

  1. Author’s full name (last name first)
  2. Full title (including any subtitle)
  3. Edition (if the book is a second or later edition)
  4. Number of the volume and the total number of volumes (if the book is a multivolume work)
  5. City of publication
  6. Shortened form of the publisher’s name (This information is available in the new MLA Handbook and online at the MLA Website
  7. Year of publication

Moran, Reilly. Arf! It’s a Dog’s Life. Rev. ed. 3 vols.

Oxford: Clarendon. 2003.

ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL

  1. Author’s name
  2. Title of the article
  3. Title of the journal
  4. Volume number
  5. Year of Publication
  6. Inclusive page numbers of article (the number of the page on which the article begins, a hyphen, and the number of the page on which the article ends)

Moran, Reilly. “Cats Think They’re So Great.” The Depauw

Review 41 (2003): 162-171.

NEWSPAPER OR MAGAZINE ARTICLE

  1. Author’s name
  2. Title of the article
  3. Title of the periodical
  4. Date of publication
  5. Inclusive page numbers of the article

Moran, Reilly. “Advanced Chewing Techniques.” Chronicle

of Higher Canine Education 12 December 1993: A37-38.

INTERNET SOURCE

  1. Author’s name
  2. Title of the document
  3. Title of the scholarly project, database, periodical, or professional or personal site
  4. Name of the editor of the scholarly project or database
  5. Date of electronic publication or last update
  6. Name of the institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the site
  7. Date when you accessed the source
  8. Network address, or URL

Moran, Reilly. “Dogs in Classical Greek Sculpture.” The Perseus Project. Ed.

Gregory Crane. March 1997. Tufts U. 14 May 2003 <

perseus.tufts.edu/Secondary/Sculptor_Essays/canis_toc.html>.

In addition to the above information, you’ll find it useful to note the library call number, or other identifying information required to locate the work. This will not be included in your final bibliography, but it’s helpful during the research process.

Evaluating sources is one of the most crucial steps in doing research. These are the criteria to keep in mind:

  • Authorship and authority: Publications often list an author’s credentials in the field by including relevant biographical information or a link to a home page. Since many sites—including educational institutions (.edu) include papers written by unsupervised students, you’ll want to be sure that you can trust the writer’s scholarship.
  • Accuracy and Verifiability: Check to see that a work’s sources are listed, probably in a list of works cited. The titles in the list can indicate the breadth of the author’s scholarship and may also reveal any possible bias.
  • Currency: This is not as crucial for a literary paper as it would be for, say, a scientific paper. Coleridge, for example, is considered one of the great literary critics and is widely read today. Still, it’s wise to consult some current scholarship to see how thinking has evolved on your subject.