A bibliography is the listing at the end of a
text that says where the author got his/her ideas. This listing shows each foreign source and how readers can find that source if they want to return to the primary readings. Bibliographies include
magazines,
books,
interviews,
web sites and other information sources that were instrumental in bringing the current thought together. Most papers today are done in
MLA Style. At the
MLA node, there is an entry for how to cite Everything.com if you use its information in a paper.
Bibliographies are critical for several reasons. In order of importance:
- They get the author out of trouble for many plagiarism accusations. If the author has properly cited where he got his ideas, then it ceases to be plagiarism and becomes research.
- It allows other researchers to reconstruct the chain of thought, either to extend that chain or to verify its accuracy.
- They let professors and teachers know how much work the author put into the paper.