JAN BRADY'S HSIE WEBSITE


New South Wales Board of Studies | Charles Sturt University Website |
Britannica On line
| Google Search |

LITERACY SKILLS

THE BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Bibliography is the last piece of the research essay (essay in this context refers to any long writing). As you read and research for the essay you must keep an accurate record of all the books you used whether you intend using quotations from them or not. The Bibliography is the full listing of all the books you have consulted. You need to list the following -

The Author - full name as supplied on the Title Page IN CAPITALS. FULLER, John James is better than FULLER, J. J. If there are two authors list them the way they appear on the title page. You might have FULLER, John James and AMBROSE, A. List Fuller first and then Ambrose even though that is not alphabetically correct. This is because Fuller is probably the main writer and Ambrose an assistant.

The Title of the Book - The full and proper title of the book taken from the Title Page not the jacket cover and underlined. For instance, on one particular book the cover says the title is The Court is Open - A Guide to the Magistrates Court when in fact on the Title Page the correct title is The Court is Open. Any other details such as volume number or series number must be noted as well.

The Imprint - This is the detail as to where and when this particular edition was printed. These details are usually a place, which could be Sydney, Auckland, New York, London, or just about anywhere else; and the date of this edition, which is always the last date listed under the Editions. The place of publication must be written out in full in the Bibliography. If there is no date just note "no date". Do not include the publication house unless you have been specifically instructed to do so. It is just becoming common in High School to do this.

Preparing a Bibliography

When you are preparing your notes for writing up your bibliography you must first consider the nature of your resources. The following is the order in which types of resources should be listed. Generally in High School you do not have to divide your bibliography however, it does not matter to know.

(a) Archives appear first. Any archival material must be listed here in alphabetical order. A typical series of entries may be:

ADELAIDE STEAMSHIP COMPANY RECORDS, (Archives of Business and Labour, Canberra ).

AUSTRALASIAN UNION STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY RECORDS, (Mitchell Library, Uncatalogued manuscripts, part of the N. L. McKellar Collection).

In this case the company is listed as the author of the archives and then is noted where they are held. In the case of the A.U.S.N. records they are uncatalogued but form part of a particular collection. This may mean that anyone else trying to find the references may have a problem because the documents are not catalogued.

(b) Government publications are next. These are listed under the Department with internal alphabetical listing of publications from the same source. The word "the" must be used where appropriate but is ignored for alphabetical listing of articles and titles.

MAIN ROAD , DEPARTMENT OF, NEW SOUTH WALES , The Roadmakers: a History of Main Roads in New South Wales , ( Sydney , 1976).

RAILWAYS, DEPARTMENT OF, NEW SOUTH WALES, The Railways of New South Wales 1855-1955 , (Sydney, n.d.).

(c) Then comes Printed books - the most commonly accessible resource for students. These are listed strictly alphabetically with internal alphabetical listings as well where there is more than one book written by a particular author. Where a book has two authors the book is listed under the first mentioned author. The surname goes first and is followed by the given name or initials of the author. This, in turn, is followed by the title of the book. Any Volume or Series number then follows. Lastly is the imprint. Encyclopaedias are listed under their name with the word "The" put in small letters and ignored for alphabetical listing.

BUTLIN, S. J. AND SCHEDVIN, C. B., War Economy 1942-1945 , Volume Three, Series Four, Civil, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, (Canberra, 1977).

CARROLL, B., Hurry Back: an Illustrated Centenary History of Mayne Nickless , ( Melbourne , 1986).

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, (Chicago, 1983).

(d) Articles are listed by Author. The title of the article is placed in inverted commas and goes first. This is followed by the name of the journal or paper in which the article appeared. The details of the volume or edition and the page numbers on which the article appeared are listed. The journal or paper is treated as the book in this instance and it is underlined as for any book.

BARKER, T. J., "Road and Land Transport in New South Wales ", Canberra Historical Journal , March, 1976, pp. 16-23.

HYTTEN, T., "The Railway and the Road Motor", The Economic Record , Volume Fifteen, 1929, pp. 273-290.

Web Sites – there are currently many conventions regarding the listing of Websites and it is important that you check with your teacher for clarification.

Generally the sites are listed in alphabetical order by URL but, if you have a specific writer of a specific document on a specific website, then it should be listed under Articles above with the URL listed as the imprint details. So you might have

www.ozgeo.com.au
PARTRIDGE, P. T., "Owls in Australia", www.ozgeo.com.au

Top | Return to Writing Skills Main Page