How Do I Compose A Proper Law Dissertation Bibliography?

So you have spent an inordinate amount of time researching and writing your dissertation and then spent almost as much time on it rewriting and editing. Before you submit your dissertation you will need to fine-tune your bibliography. It is an unfortunate fact that many students who do so well on the writing of the dissertation, lose marks because they fail to properly address the creation of the bibliography. When you think about it, the amount of work which has gone into your dissertation requires a perfect bibliography.

The tutor or lecturer who will be reading your dissertation will need to check the sources you quote in making the various points in your work. Finding those sources needs to be a simple and relatively quick process. It will be such if you have done the right thing in creating your bibliography.

Here are three basic tips to ensure your bibliography wins full marks.

• Make sure you have a complete list of all footnotes or references.
• Make sure that all the relevant information is correct.
• Make an alphabetical list of all such references before placing same in your bibliography.

There is nothing worse than having an incomplete list of all footnotes or references. The person reading your dissertation appreciates the point you have made, sees the appropriate numeral and decides to check that source. They move to the bibliography only to find that that particular reference is not listed. Or perhaps it is listed but listed incorrectly. Both of those sins are unforgivable. If ever the use of an editor is worthwhile, it is in the checking of the completeness and accuracy of all footnotes or references in your bibliography.

Double checking the accuracy of the information in your bibliography goes without saying. The wrong page number or author or title of the document you are quoting is a serious error.

The presentation of your bibliography is of equal importance to the content. It is very easy to discover the correct way to present your bibliography simply by looking at the work of others who have gone before you. If you have any questions about the presentation of the bibliography, consult your supervisor. The standard procedure is to present the work in alphabetical order. This is for obvious reasons so that the person checking your reference is able to quickly find the source document.