Notes on Structure and Layout: The Bibliography

To those of you in Year 13 who are finalising a TOK essay or those of you in Year 12 who are embarking on your third and final essay, here are some formalities that you MUST follow:

1. Read and appropriately reference at least TWO books/articles (from journals/specialist magazines or newspapers) written in hard print!

2. Create a list of references at the end of the essay (on a separate sheet) citing all the sources you have consulted in the preparation for writing your essay. Cite the books/articles in a section entitled 'Bibliography' and the websites under in a section labelled 'Websites'.

3. The basic formula for referencing is as follows - courtesy of Mme. Szabries who was actually at the conference at the Sorbonne, Paris when the standard conventions for bibliographic referencing were reviewed and then reformulated in a book by M. le Professeur Yves Chevrel: L'Etudiant chercheur en littérature! Please remember to use the correct punctuation!:

Books

AUTHOR'S SURNAME [in capitals], Author's first name or initials, Title of book [in italics], Place of publication, Publisher, Series or Collection [if known], Date of publication of edition [original date in brackets, if relevant], last numbered page [i.e. 347 p.] [End with a full stop.]

Articles

AUTHOR'S SURNAME [in capitals], Author's first name or initials, "Title of article" [in double inverted commas - not italics!], in [in italics], Journal/Magazine/Newspaper Title [in italics], Volume, Number, Place of publication, Publisher's name, Date of publication, first and last numbered pages [i.e. pp. 43-56.] [End with a full stop.]

Websites

AUTHOR'S SURNAME [if relevant], Author's first name or initials [if relevant], "Title of article" [in double inverted commas], Website Page Name [in italics - e.g. if it's an on-line journal/magazine/newspaper], Website address [compulsory], (Date page was accessed - Month, year - in round brackets). [End with a full stop.]

For a more visual expression of these formalities (and concrete examples), Mme. Szabries has put together a document on the TOK website: follow the 'TOK Essay' link in the 'Table of Contents' or click this link:

http://ibtokspot.googlepages.com/Bibliography.pdf

Oh yes! Remember that the lists in the Bibliography and Websites sections must be in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER according to the AUTHOR'S SURNAME.