Making Bibliography Cards for your Research Papaer

As you find each source on your topic, you'll want to record publication and location information. When you first start researching, you may just print this information from electronic sources and indexes. Later, you'll turn it into bibliography cards written in the appropriate format.
To do so, get a pack of 3 x 5 index cards. Use one card per source. These are your bibliography cards. Cards allow you to keep the most promising sources and discard the irrelevant ones at your convenience. Also, cards can be easily arranged in alphabetical order when the time comes to type a Works Cited page for inclusion at the end of your paper.

There are several different bibliographic styles, or ways of documenting sources. As you write your bibliography cards, follow the documentary style assigned by your instructor or preferred by the discipline in which you are writing. For instance:

•     Use the Modern Language Association (MLA) style for research papers in the humanities, including literature, history, the arts, and religion.
•     Use the American Psychological Association (АРА) style for research papers in the social sciences, such as psychology and sociology.