Writing the bibliography for your dissertation is crucial and it is vital to write it in the mentioned format. In the case of dissertations, the formatting of your document is given high priority and therefore, you must take care to follow all the guidelines mentioned by your university.
If you are writing a bibliography in the APA format, make sure to follow these steps:
Start on a new page: The bibliography comes at the end of your dissertation and it must begin on a new page.
Title of the page: You can write References or Bibliography as the page title. It does not need to be underlined or italicized.
Alphabetize the sources: You need to write down all the authors’ names in your references and alphabetize them as per their last names. In case the name of the author is unknown, use the first letter of the title to alphabetize.
Initials: In the APA style, after you write the last name of the author, you need to add a comma and write the initials of the author separated by a period.
Date of publication: You must mention the date of the publication of the source. All months are abbreviated except May, June and July. Maintain consistency while writing the dates (Jan 14, 2009or 14 Jan 2009).
Title of the article: Only the first word of the title must be capital here and end the title with a period.
Place of publication: Write the place where the book or journal was published, add a colon and then write the name of the publisher.
Pay careful attention to formatting your bibliography and you will not lose out on precious marks!