References and Bibliography

We will talk more about references and a bibliography later in this course. For now, let's review what they are, and the basics of using them in a formal report.

Both a bibliography and a list of references list all the resources and documents you used while conducting a project and writing the report. However, there are some differences between a list of references and a bibliography.

References are numbered and are listed in the order the information appears in the report.

A bibliography contains entries that are not numbered, but appear in alphabetical order by the primary author's name. Entries from a bibliography do not have to be referenced in the body of the report.

The Appendix

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of an appendix is "a section of extra information added at the end of a book." In a text book, you may see "Appendix C: Glossary of Terms." In a formal report, you may have an appendix for costs, a catalog, a detailed comparison of alternatives that has different tables, etc.

In other words, the appendix contains the detailed data that would have distracted from the flow of the report. In other words, the appendix contains what we've called attachments in informal and semi-formal reports.

What you include in the appendix is up to you. However, there are guidelines that apply to how you place information in the appendix of a formal report.

They should be arranged in the order they are referred to in the report.

Each one should be given an informative title to help your audience discern what type of information is included.

Each appendix should be assigned a letter. For example: Appendix A.

Refer to each appendix in the report. If you don't refer to it in the report, it shouldn't be an appendix.

Each appendix has its own page numbers. For example: Appendix A starts with "1". Appendix B also starts with "1".

Each appendix is a separate document. This means appendixes can also contain references that are listed at the end of the appendix.

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