Don’t save references for last.

Many students save references for last. When working as a writing tutor I noticed that the same students would appear repeatedly with the same problem, a mass of notes and highlights with a list of references and a desperate need to help assembling a proper bibliography and related citations.

The thing about not doing references as you go, it that it is a little like measuring out the ingredients for a cake, throwing them on the floor and once you are done, trying to scrape it all into a bowl to continue. The only sensible way to handle references is to complete them as you go. This is an excellent source for APA, and they also have a great version of how to do MLA citations. Those guides include both in-text and reference page instructions.

As soon as you are about to include a reference, immediately enter the full and proper listing in your reference page. Then, when you use it in the text, be sure to enter the appropriate reference there as well.

What is most surprising about the tendency to do this is that all of the students who do it report hating references, because they are so difficult! Then they follow the exact same pattern that has made them so difficult every time. That would be the final caveat, if you are loving doing references by leaving them for last minute, if it does not create any problems for you, then, by all means, continue on your way! However, if you find the writing process stressful or chaotic, this is something thing you can do to improve the experience of writing and the quality of what you write, you can also hire an editor to fix the problem after the fact.