Writing a Bibliography

A bibliographical reference should contain sufficient information for someone else or yourself to trace the item in a Library or on the Internet. As you begin your search, keep a careful note of the full details of all the items you use. This can be time consuming but it is well worth it. The following are common types of publication:

a) A book by a single author:Watson, C. (1998) Heinemann Interactive Science 1. Port Melbourne, Heinemann.

b) A book by two authors:Wilson, D and Bauer, B. (1992) Dynamic Science 2 Sydney, McGraw-Hill.

c) A book by three or more authors:Thickett, G. et al (2000) Science Tracks ,8 South Yarra, McMillan

d) An edition of an author’s work:Smith, R. (2000) Conquering Chemistry. Third edition. Sydney, McGraw-Hill

e) An article in a periodical/journal:Salt, D. (2001) ‘Australia - an ancient legacy’. Helix, No.81 10-11

f) A newspaper articleBenson S. and Lawrence K. (2002) ‘After the Inferno the bush is born again’.Daily Telegraph, January 29

g) World Wide Web siteWhen your information sources come from the World Wide Web. Your bibliography should contain as many items from the following lists as are relevant and available:

Name of the author, editor by last name and followed by any appropriate abbreviations, such as ed. Title of a poem, short story, article, database or periodical, in quotation marks Title of a book, in italics or underlined Name of the editor, preceded by any appropriate abbreviations, such as ed. Date of electronic publication or posting or latest update, whichever is most recent (if known) Name of any institution or organisation sponsoring or associated with the website Date you accessed the source URL [in angle brackets]

Although no single entry will contain all these items of information, all web pages contain the following basic information:

Online DocumentAuthor’s name (last name first)Document title.Date of Internet publication.Date of access <URL>

Personal SitePotter, Fran,. Frank Potter’s Science Gems Home page. 3 Feb. 2002. 4 Feb. 2002<http://www.sciencegems.com/>

Professional SiteNSW Department of Education and Training Home Page. Feb. 2002. NSW Department of Education and Training 4 Feb. 2002 http://www.det.nsw.edu.au/

Annotation: If your assignment asks you to annotate each reference then you need to:

Each of your references needs to be immediately followed by a sentence or two, describing what you found useful in this reference.