For example, say you have “Sheldon,” “Smith,” and “Sherry” as last names you need to alphabetize. “Sheldon” and “Sherry” both have the same first three letters, so you keep going until they are different. The fourth letters in each name are “L” and “R,” respectively. Since “L” comes before “R” in the alphabet, “Sheldon” comes before “Sherry” in your bibliography. Therefore, these names would be alphabetized in order in this way: Sheldon, Sherry, Smith. “Smith” comes last because the second letter in “Smith,” “M,” comes after “H” in the alphabet, which is the second letter in both “Sheldon” and “Sherry. "

For example, if one author’s name is Robert Smith and the other is Cynthia Smith, then the entry for Cynthia Smith’s work would come first. If you have two books or other sources written by Cynthia Smith, then you would look at the titles of these works. For example, if one of the works is called Bird Tales and the other is called Zoo Life, then “Bird Tales” would come first in the list and “Zoo Life” would come second.

If you have a “Sheldon” and a “Sheldon-Meyers,” the shorter name always comes first, so “Sheldon” would come before “Sheldon-Meyers. "

As an example, if you have the name “Mc Murry,” you essentially treat it as “Mcmurry” for alphabetizing purposes.

In other words, if the title is “The Cat Who Couldn’t Sleep,” you would file it under “Cat. " One of the reasons for this rule is that so many titles begin with articles that if they were alphabetized under those words, those sections would have too many titles to be useful for finding it later.

For instance, most citations begin with the author’s last name, followed by the author’s first name or initial, like this: Smith, Josie. Therefore, you use “Smith” to place this citation in its proper place in the bibliography. If your book had two authors, it would be cited as “Smith, Josie, and Roberta George. " Therefore, it would still be alphabetized under “Smith,” unless Roberta George was listed first in the book. Use the title page as your guide. [6] X Research source

For instance, if the editor’s name was Jess Jacob, you would alphabetize the entry under Jacob, Jess.

For instance, if the title of the resource is “Cats and Their Sleeping Habits,” you would file it under “Cats. "

APA style. Create a normal APA style bibliography entry for each of the works, but place them in the order that they were published. For example, if one work was published in 1993 and another in 1997, then the 1993 work would come first. [9] X Research source MLA style. Start with a normal works cited page entry for the author’s work that comes first in the alphabet. For example, Pride and Prejudice would come before Sense and Sensibility in a list of works by Jane Austen. Then, start a new entry right after this entry, but begin it with two hyphens instead of listing the author’s last and first name again. [10] X Research source

For instance, a basic citation in MLA will look something like this one: Smith, George. How Cats Behave. New York: Cat Publishing House, 1989. Print. [11] X Research source In this instance, the author’s name is George Smith. “How Cats Behave” is the title. “New York” is the city it was published in, and “Cat Publishing House” is the publisher, while “1989” is the year it was published. “Print” is the format it was published in. In Chicago Style, this citation would look this way in the bibliography: Smith, George. How Cats Behave. New York: Cat Publishing House, 1989. The basic style is fairly similar to MLA in the bibliography. [12] X Research source The same citation would look like this in APA: Smith, G. (1989). How Cats Behave. New York: Cat Publishing House. Notice that this citation only uses the first initial of the author’s name and moves the publication date closer to the beginning. [13] X Research source

Apply the alphabetizing rules as you go. [14] X Research source

You might also need to look under the “Table” menu to find the sort button. It will ask you how you want them sorted. Choose by paragraph and text in ascending order. The list will be sorted alphabetically, but you will need to format the citations with proper indentations and such still.

However, it’s important to check your citations when it’s done, as these systems are not perfect.