Bibliography in essays

In OSCOLA, the bibliography should include all secondary sources that were cited in the essay. The secondary sources are listed in a very similar way to the footnotes except that the author’s name is inverted (surname, first initial). If there are any unattributed works, these should begin with ——.

Firstly, make sure you know what to call the list of references at the end of your essay. The most common name for this list is a ‘reference list’. But some referencing styles call it a ‘bibliography’ or even a ‘works cited’ list. Also, it’s possible to have a ‘reference list’ and a ‘bibliography’ in the same essay.

The bibliography should only contain references that were cited in the essay. The reference list should only contain references that were cited in the essay. A supplementary bibliography may include additional works that were read but not cited.

For example, author and title of source are separated by periods. The rest of the elements are separated by commas. Author. Title of source. Location. Don’t worry if you don’t have every element, just choose the ones you have and include them in the citation, as in the bibliography example here: Smith, John Jacob Jingleheimer.