Sunday, July 22, 2012

Learn How to Cite Your Sources in Your Undergraduate Dissertation

This is the first time you are writing an undergraduate dissertation, you have collected all the material that is to be used but you are really stuck on how to cite your sources?

Usually, an undergraduate dissertation is the first major research paper writing project given to the students in their academic career. Until now, they only have written essays and reports where citation was not an issue but this project often makes them anxious, as they have no idea of how to write it. Students frequently get their dissertations unapproved because of poor referencing of the work cited.

There are various kinds of citation systems and students need to pick one for their dissertation referencing depending upon the pursued subject. Citation will become easier and the student will avoid the chances of plagiarism by following the instructions given below

5 major tips for citation in the bibliography section of undergraduate dissertations

1. Pick the dissertation system that you are required to use for your dissertation.

For an MLA format that is used in literature, art, and humanities, you need to put the author’s last name first and then cite the title name followed by the name of the publishing company and the year




For citing a digital document, add the name and location of the digital library, the date you accessed it, and then the URL.

• In an APA style, usually used for psychology and other social sciences dissertations, put the last name of the author and the initial of his first name, followed by year. Then write the title and the publishing house.

For citing an internet source, write “retrieved”, then the date you viewed it followed by the URL

In CSE citation, the researcher needs to write the last name of the author with the initial of the first name. Give the title, followed by the city name where the article was published, and then the name of the publishing house.

In the University of Chicago style used for history, art, humanities, sciences, and social sciences, the author’s last name comes first, and then the full first name is written.  After this, the title is given, followed by the name of the publishing house and the publishing year

2. Citation is also required within the text in which you use either Author-date format or Author-page number format depending upon your disciple

3. Students must not use prefixes when citing their sources in the reference section

4. List your citations in alphabetical order and disregard the spaces and apostrophes when putting them in order.

5. In alphabetical order, cite the single authors before the multiple ones. For example, if you have to put “Jones, 1999” and “Jones et al. 1999” in the reference section, then you will cite “Jones, 1999” first.

The above-mentioned tips will help you cite your sources properly throughout your undergraduate dissertation and will help you avoid plagiarizing the work of others. Proper referencing also gives authenticity to your work.

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