Your working bibliography is a detailed and evolving list of articles, books, Web sites, and other resources that may contribute to your research. It guides your research by recording the sources you plan to consult and adding notes about those you do examine. Each entry in your working bibliography eventually needs to follow the format your instructor expects, generally either MLA or APA style.
Choose a Method. Pick the method you can use most efficiently.
Keep Careful Records. The more carefully you record possible sources, the more time you’ll save later when you list the works you actually used and cited. At that point, you’ll be grateful to find all the necessary titles, authors, dates, page numbers, and other details at your fingertips — and you’ll avoid a frantic, last-minute database search or library trip.
When you start a bibliographic entry for a source, your information may be incomplete: “Find bionic ears article—maybe last year in science magazine.” Start with whatever clues you can gather—keywords, partial titles, authors, relevant publications, rough dates. Once you locate the source, you can fill in the detail. Eventually each entry should include everything you need to find the source as well as to prepare the list of sources at the end of your paper.
See a table on types of information to record.
As your working bibliography develops, your circumstances may favor different methods of recording information. For example, when you find that science magazine with the article on bionic ears, you may read a printed copy or print the full text from a database. Either way, you can easily take notes using your usual method: on paper or in an electronic file. For field research, you might simply start with the name of a possible contact: “Dr. Edward Denu — cardiologist — interview about drug treatments.” Should you interview Dr. Denu or someone from his staff about medication for heart patients, you might record the conversation (with that person’s permission) or jot notes in a handheld electronic storage tool as you talk, later adding the information to your notes.