Creating a Bibliography

You must keep a record of all the sources you use (including electronic sources and websites). The citation format standard at Dana Hall is the format of the Modern Language Association of America, usually called MLA style. For more information about MLA style, consult the MLA handbook (Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999.) For quick reference, refer to the library's Bibliographic Citations Format, and Sample Bibliography handouts, which are in MLA format.

You may be required to cite your sources in text -- in your paper, or on your poster, PowerPoint presentation, or video project. If so, refer to the library's Parenthetical Documentation & Endnotes/Footnotes Handout, which explains how to create both in MLA style and the Endnote and Footnote Formats Handout, which provides examples for many types of resources.

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations of a variety of sources (books, articles, videos, websites, etc.) that also has a short paragraph describing and evaluating each particular source. This paragraph is called an annotation. See a Sample Annotation.

Science assignments may require citations in the format of the American Psychological Association, so the library has also created an APA Bibliographic Citations Format handout, an APA Sample Reference List and an APA Parenthetical Documentation Handout.

All of these handouts are also available in the Dana Hall School Academic Skills and Strategies Handbook.