What is a Bibliography?

A Bibliography is a list, in alphabetical order, of all the sources consulted for a piece of writing.

In most cases students are instructed to include a bibliography with only those sources actually cited within their paper.

In the APA citation style this is called a References page. View this Google doc to see a bibliography in a References list in APA style. Check out the bibliography in this sample paper in APA style on the OWL site.

In the MLA citation style a bibliography is referred to as a Works Cited page. View this Google doc to see the same bibliography in a Works Cited list in MLA style. Check out a sample MLA paper at OWL Purdue

Research tip!

Once you have found an relevant article or book that you can use in your research, look at the bibliography. It’s full of potentially useful research that you can use.