With recent advancements in technology, it has become much easier for people to research materials through internet. But when you are required to write a dissertation, you must quote your sources. In this way you acknowledge the original writer and authenticate your own work. The “APA-American Psychological Association” describes the guidelines for citing academic papers related to social sciences, and follows a different approach for different medium of sources. In this article, I will tell you some prominent rules for quoting sources in your dissertation. Here they are:
When quoting information from a research material, be sure it has been published. To serve this purpose, you can use ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database, a major source of academic paper from American and Canadian universities. Locate the publication number which usually begins with “AAT”.
Quote you sources as follows (in case you find a print copy of a material):
• Author’s last name, First initial
• Source Title in italics
• Include “Name of database, (publication number)” in the above mentioned format when quoting information from a database.
• Change the title “doctoral dissertation” to “master’s thesis” in both cases to show the category of chosen work
• Add the phrase “retrieved from” with the web address to cite an academic paper acquired online but which is not published in a database.
On the other hand, you need to follow a different format for an unpublished material. You need to write down your bibliographic citation in the following way:
• Author’s last name
• First initial, (year)
• Source title in italics
• Name of Institution, Location
Add the author’s last name and year of publication when discussing his ideas or citing his/her words in your writing. Write the name and date within a parentheses and divide them with a comma, for instance (mark, 2012). In APA style, you need to cite in-text references.
Important Tips
Before checking a research material, you must have a subscription to enter the ProQuest Dissertations And Theses Database; so you must check it with your library.
No matter if you have documented your sources in bibliography, you must include an in-text citation when quoting it in your essay; or you will be implicated in plagiarism.
Refer to the “APA- American Psychological Association” manual to ensure further about proper citations of your sources.
Hopefully, this article will prove to be a helping hand to quote your sources in APA style for a dissertation paper.