The Indonesian Spelling General Guidelines (PUEBI) provide guidelines for writing a bibliography in four separate sections, as follow:
- Item I.G.1 concerning Italics: Italics are used to write the title of the book, the name of the magazine, or the name of the newspaper quoted in writing, including in the bibliography.
- Point III.A.3 concerning Full Stops: The dot is used in the bibliography between the author’s name, year, writing title (which does not end with a question mark or exclamation point), and the place of publication.
- Point III.B.8 concerning Commas: Commas are used to separate the parts of the name behind their order in the bibliography.
- Point III.D.5 concerning Colons: Colons are used between (a) volumes or numbers and pages, (b) sura and verses in the scriptures, (c) titles and subheadings of an essay, and (d) name of city and publisher in the bibliography.
The four PUEBI guidelines provide seven examples of writing a bibliography, as follow:
- Language Center. 2011. Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia Pusat Bahasa [Large Dictionary of Indonesian Language Centre]. The Fourth Edition (Second Printing). Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
- Language Centre, Ministry of National Education. 2008. Peta Bahasa di Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia [Map of Language in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia].
- Moeliono, Anton. 1989. Kembara Bahasa. Jakarta: Gramedia.
- Gunawan, Ilham. 1984. Kamus Politik Internasional [Dictionary of International Politics]. Jakarta: Restu Agung.
- Halim, Amran (Ed.) 1976. Politik Bahasa Nasional [The Politics of National Language]. Volume 1. Jakarta: Language Center.
- Tulalessy, D. et al. 2005. Pengembangan Potensi Wisata Bahari di Wilayah Indonesia Timur [The Development of Maritime Tourism Potential in Eastern Indonesia]. Ambon: Mutiara Beta.
- Dari Pemburu ke Terapeutik: Antologi Cerpen Nusantara Pedoman Umum Pembentukan Istilah [From Hunter to Therapeutic: Anthology of the Archipelago Short Story General Guidelines for Formation of Terms]. Jakarta: Language Center.
All of these examples, except example number seven, provide a writing pattern for the bibliography for books such as the following:
Author. Year. Title. Publisher.
This pattern can be formulated based on who is the author; when it is published; what is the title; where and by whom is published. The pattern can be described as follows:
- Each part is separated by a full stop.
- Individual writers are written with a last name written first with a comma which separated it with a first name. Authors in the form of institutions are written without reversing the order of their names.
- The title is written in italics with the capitalisation of the title. Edition or volume information separated by full stops. Print information is written in parentheses.
- Publisher information consists of two parts, namely the city and the publisher, separated by a colon.
PUEBI only provides examples for writing a bibliography using books. So, how do you write an accurate bibliography from other reference sources such as magazine articles or website text? To answer this question, we must look for a similar writing style.
There are many literary styles around the world. Famous writing styles include APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and CMS (Chicago Manual of Style). Let’s look at writing according to each of these styles:
- APA: Moeliono, A. (1989). Language Wanderings. Jakarta: Gramedia.
- MLA: Moeliono, Anton. Language Wanderings. Gramedia, 1989.
- CMS: Moeliono, Anton. 1989. Language Wanderings. Jakarta: Gramedia.
Apparently, the writing style of the bibliography according to the CMS is most similar to the example of writing on PUEBI. Based on that, we can make CMS a reference for writing bibliographies when using information from magazines, journals, web sites, and others.