Bibliographies are different than work cited pages, so it is important to understand those differences, so you include the right items. Bibliographies usually list every material you used for your research, not just the ones you paraphrased or quoted. Therefore, the list will be longer, and most people find this a daunting task. However, learning how to write your bibliography in MLA format doesn’t have to be difficult if you follow a few steps and take your time. However, if you still feel that you can’t do it yourself, some websites can help you generate your bibliographies.
General Rules
All of your entries should be double-spaced, which is easy to set up in Microsoft Word. Many examples you may see online won’t show the double spacing, but it is essential. Otherwise, you may not get a good grade on the report or essay. Double-spacing should apply to the whole document, not just the empty space. For example, this paragraph would have extra space in between each line if it were written as a bibliography in MLA format.
After a punctuation mark, you should use one single space instead of the double space method. However, don’t get confused. When you write the information and include punctuation marks when necessary, you will hit the space key one time instead of twice. When you press enter to type in a new item on the list, it should be double-spaced.
If you used online resources or have a long word, it should be divided onto two lines. To do so, you can put a period, hyphen or slash mark at the end of the line, but do not add hyphens to URLs that were not previously there.
The first lines of your bibliographies should not be indented, but rather the second and subsequent lines will be indented five spaces or ½-inch from the left margin. You can set up Microsoft Word to do this for you, which can make the process easier and ensure that the lines don’t look strange when printed.
Particular Rules
There will be more rules to follow based on the type of item you are citing. Books can have multiple authors, multiple editors, compilers, no mention of editors or authors and many more situations. Each one has a different set of rules to follow.
If you will be writing many essays that require bibliographies, it may be best to purchase the handbook, search for it online, or borrow it from your local library.
