DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A BIBLIOGRAPHY AND A GLOSSARY

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A BIBLIOGRAPHY AND A GLOSSARY

A glossary is a collection of terms that typically concludes and explains a thesis, book, academic paper, or article in the main text that an average reader may find confusing or unfamiliar with.

In the glossary, you must first decide which terms from your primary text should belong in the glossary before you can write one; then the glossary can be formatted correctly and polished to make it readable by adding definitions for these terms.

While a bibliography contains a list of all the sources you have used in your research work or any academic work, it’s crucial to include a bibliography while writing a paper or book. Your reader can learn about the sources you used by reading your bibliography, as it contains a complete list of all the books, papers, and other sources you made use of to research or write your paper.

Though a glossary and a bibliography are different words entirely, most people confuse their purposes in academic work or writing. To be cautious not to confuse the two, and also know when you should use one or the other,

Let’s look at some differences between a Glossary and a Bibliography.

• The main purpose of a glossary is that the reader can quickly access words that are specific to the material by using a glossary. As readers may become displeased if they come across numerous unfamiliar industry-specific terms, authors need to include definitions of key terms in a glossary. Whereas the purpose of a bibliography is to give acknowledgement to authors whose work you’ve used as a source, it also makes it simpler for readers to learn more about your work by exploring the research you referenced in your work.
• As earlier defined, a glossary is an alphabetical set of technical terminology and meanings used to give a clear explanation of the terms used in your main text, but a bibliography contains a list of all the sources you used to cite your work or paper.
• While a glossary defines some terminology you used in the body of your article, which helps the reader flow when reading your work, a bibliography prevents your work from being viewed as plagiarised because you’ve cited all the sources you used in your work.

You must have learned a few essential distinctions between a glossary and a bibliography. Let’s briefly look at how to write a glossary and a bibliography.

How To Write a Glossary;

• Identify your primary audience

You don’t need to define every word that the ordinary reader could know; a glossary might not be necessary if you’re writing for a group of colleagues in your profession, whereas if you’re writing for a general public, be sure to include phrases they might not comprehend.

• Check the main text for words that aren’t used regularly.

Start by using a pen or highlighter to go over the major text then any terms that the ordinary reader might not be familiar with should be underlined or highlighted, you ought to mark any scholarly or technical terms that may require clarification outside of the main text or you can also determine that a term further needs to be explained even though the reader may already be familiar with it.

• Request assistance from your editor in defining the phrases.

If you are familiar with the subject matter, then you might find it challenging to come up with terms for the glossary on your own, so you can ask the editor you are working with on the content, such as an editor at a publication, for assistance in coming up with terminology for the glossary.

If they have little knowledge of the subject matter, they may be able to identify terminology in the text that a typical reader could find obscure or confusing because the term won’t sound familiar.

• Gather the vocabulary for the glossary.

After reading the primary content and asking your editor or readers to scan it for terms, and compile all the terms into one document, you then analyse the terms that your editor and readers have recommended, make sure any concepts or ideas that an average reader would not be familiar with are covered by the terms supplied.

Finally, the glossary terminology should be comprehensive and helpful to the reader, but not overly so. For instance, for a five to six-page paper, you should only have one to two pages of terminology unless numerous academic or technical terms require further explanation.

How To Write a Bibliography

• Make a list of references.

The bibliography should take up one page at the end of the work, the heading should be tagged “References”, and you should mention all of the sources you utilised in the paper under this title.

• Your references should be arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name.

The author’s complete last name should be used first then followed by their first and middle initials (if any are known), If the source has more than one author you ought to include them all in the reference list in the order, they appear on the source alphabetically starting with the author’s last name.

• • Use ellipses if there are more than seven authors.

List the source’s first seven writers followed by an ellipsis, then write the name of the final author indicated on the source after the ellipsis.

 Conclusion

The key difference between a bibliography and a glossary is that a glossary contains special words, terminology, jargon, and language used in the book that could be challenging to discover elsewhere.

It’s also a list of terms in a particular field of expertise with their definitions.

Whereas a bibliography is a list of all the sources consulted to gather information for the work, it’s a segment of a written work which a writer uses to cite all the sources the work is based on.