Why Are Bibliographies Important? |
"Do I really have to make a bibliography?" you might be wondering. Or your friend who has returned to college in her forties might be wondering. Or your teenage son who has a five-page paper due tomorrow might be wondering. The kicker usually happens when the student or researcher realizes just how nit-picky bibliography styles are. "Who cares if I get the author or title out of order?" Believe it or not, bibliographies--and their seemingly ridiculous rules--are actually very important. Bibliographies are the literary version of "showing your work" in math.
Bibliographies, believe it or not, are arguably more important now than in past. We live in the age of information, and we also live in the age of misinformation. Assertions need to have a grounding, and it's important for serious work to be grounded in serious sources. A third grade lunch table might be filled with assertions. Some of these lunch table assertions might go like this: "My coach said I ran 25 miles per hour yesterday." "My cousin went inside a volcano, and he saw a fire-breathing dragon." "Alligators come out of the sewers at night." We can giggle at these assertions. They might sound funny, and maybe we remember a friend saying something like this or we ourselves said something like this as children. However, the gag becomes less funny when these assertions enter their adult form, often taking antagonist or downright bizarre sentiments. At some point, it is important to say, "Huh, that's interesting. Where exactly did you hear that?" Bibliographies answer that important "where did you hear that" question. Bibliographies help adults from making assertions that have little or no grounding in the existing corpus of scholarly research.
Writer's show their work by building bibliographies. Bibliographies show how the scholar reached a specific conclusion, much like how a mathematician makes proofs through a logical sequence. Bibliographies reveal a scholar's process of reaching a conclusion. A scientist can demonstrate that lack of sleep is actually quite terrible for your mind by citing clinical studies that show a pattern among the sleep deprived. Likewise, an art historian can show that a newly-appreciated Italian painter from the thirteenth century displays techniques once thought to only occur in much later Rennaissance art. The major purpose of a bibliography is to show a consensus (or a lack of consensus) on a given topic. An assertion gains credence when it is backed by the findings of other people. A well-constructed bibliography shows that the author has, in fact, done his or her homework.
Another critical aspect of the bibliography concerns credit. Every discipline--chemistry, astronomy, religious studies, anthropology--has built up a corpus of knowledge over many centuries. It's important to give credit where credit is due and cite the name of the person from whom you received a piece of information. For instance, nobody can know what the population of Somalia is without citing some reference. The CIA World Factbook, for instance, would be a good place to check on the current figure of Somalia's population. Without a citation, the author assumes that this information is "common sense." But it's not common sense. It's a number that deserves a reference. And the people that collected that information should be credited for providing it. Sometimes even great scholars and scientists have to be reminded that we all "stand on the shoulders of giants." It took thousands of years to get to the point where we grasped that the Earth, not the Sun, is the body that is in orbit. It's obvious to us today, but before Copernicus, it was not obvious. And let's be honest: if we didn't live in a post-Copernicus-era, how many of us would intuitively watch the Sun's transit each day and realize this "basic" fact. Give Copernicus credit for his work.
Bibliographies provide a map to the previous work on a given subject. A well-construccted bibliography can point other researchers to similar work in a given field. For instance, a paper on new treatments for a specific form of cancer can point scientists and medical professionals to other clinical studies that provide further evidence for this treatment's effictiveness. Likewise, a bibliography on Greek mythology can point a scholar to a paper in an Italian journal that he has never seen before. Bibliographies aren't just busy work. They are roadmaps to knowledge. The importance of bibliographies, their mapping of the human knowledge base, their ability to further guide other researchers to other studies, are the reason why bibliographies seem to have such specific rules. All of the apparent "nitpicking" over periods, commas, and copyright dates has a point: the author is showing his or her work. Afterall, the author is showing with the bibliography, the assertions made within are not like the third-grade lunch table claims stated above; rather, they are based on sound scholarship or the latest science. There are different bibliographical styles, My favorite is Chicago, a favorite in the humanities. Others include APA or MLA style. APA has strong footing in the sciences. Anyhow, here is an example of some books styled in Chicago: Blair, John. The Anglo-Saxon Age: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press. 2000. Bragg, Melvyn. The Adventure of English: the Bibliography of a Language. New York: Arcade. 2011. Ostler, Nicholas. Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World. New York: HarperCollins. 2006. Updated August 2019 Back to the top of the page