Bibliography Resources

When having students write a bibliography for their speeches, I often get bibliographic entries such as “google.com,” or “the Internet.” These, my friends, are not bibliographic entries. Even when more information is given, it is often incorrect.

Although some could argue that students need to know the bibliographic form, I am under the belief that our generation of students needs to know how to get the end result rather than emphasizing the process. There are two easy ways for students to write bibliographies. One way is through the use of online resources and the other is through Microsoft Word.

Two of the more popular online bibliographic sources are http://www.bibme.org/ and http://www.citefast.com/. Both sites allow students to enter the information needed to create a bibliography. (Of course, the students need to know the correct information in order to fill out the form!) Bibme has a citation guide so that students can actually learn how to create bibliographic entry as well as enter the information. Students can also create a free account so that their information is saved on the site. Citefast allows students to save their bibliographic entries, but there is no guide to teach them the rules.

Microsoft Word 2007 offers a plethora of reference assistance. By clicking on the “References” tab, information about all types of references can be seen. Students will be best-served by adding the information for their references when they “insert citation.” Then, when they’re finished with their papers or outlines, they can add the bibliography, which has been created using information from the forms. Here is a brief video showing how to use the citation and bibliography features of Word 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DYuUGP7vLg&feature=related. While this doesn’t give a lot of detailed information, it’s enough to get students started.

Students do need to have bibliographies for their work, and having them use these resources could prevent the dreaded “www.wikipedia.com: entries. If these are familiar to you, please pass along the information to someone who is less familiar with them.

Next week: Learning Styles