Today I attended a Word Functions workshop to find out how to create a bibliography on Word, using the referencing function. I have known about this function for a while but never bothered to look at it. I thought it was only really useful to people who struggled to reference correctly. I know how to reference. It's not hard to type the references up - I do it as I go along whenever I'm writing an essay. I know the alphabet so putting the bibliography in the correct order isn't a problem. So why would I need this little helper when I can do it perfectly well myself?
Now that I work as a student support mentor and a specialist support tutor, I thought it was about time I learned about the bibliography function so I can pass it on to students who aren't so familiar with referencing. Oh boy, what have I been doing typing up all those references this whole time?! Admittedly the function was not available when I first started my undergraduate degree (I believe it has been around since 2007), but all that time spent on typing up the references for my MA, articles I've written and short courses I've taken in the last few years - wasted! The bibliography and citation functions are great tools, even for those who are good at referencing. Students - get on it immediately!
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| Fish don't really need to know about referencing. But for everyone else, let Microsoft Word create your bibliography for you... (photo: my own) |
Using headings to simply create a contents page is another invaluable function on Word. Again, this is not something I used for my degree until I wrote my dissertation...
...thank goodness I discovered it before writing my dissertation :-o
