How to Pick Reference Books

You need reference books when you want the facts and you need them to be accurate. The information needs to be organized and easy to use. Keep the following tips in mind when picking out reference books for your home or office.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Determine your need for reference books. If you have a specialty like geography or physics, you will want reference books in those areas. For general use, you may need books in math, English, science, history and geography.
2. Have a dictionary and thesaurus on hand. You might want an English dictionary like the Concise Oxford and an American one like the Webster's dictionary. Roget's thesaurus is available in book form or online. You may also want a dictionary with different languages.
3. Keep an encyclopedia or fact books in your home for easy reference. There are books on who's who in certain areas including famous scientists, mathematicians, theorists and famous people from history.
4. Have an array of specialty books on hand with cooking terms, scientific terms and medical terms. You may also want religious reference books and books about famous literature.
5. Make sure you have an up-to-date law book or government information book. Laws change so make sure the books are current. You also want information that is relevant to your country.
6. Turn to your handbook of current English when you need help with grammar or general writing. If you want to quote any material, you need to understand either the APA or MLA reference styles for quoting material. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. is well known in the writer's community.
7. Buy geography and history books for your own country along with maps and atlases. Some available books have timelines so you know what happened when.
8. Keep everyday information close such as a computer manual, local telephone book or business directory.