How To Create A Dissertation From Scratch: Referencing Prompts

A dissertation writing guide: referencing

Dissertation writing is a long and step wise process which needs complete focus and hard work. A very important part of dissertation writing is referencing. Referencing means to give reference to the source from which the material or idea has been taken. There are very important purposes of giving references to the material that you have collected or what you have written. You must always give reference to any idea or statement if that has been taken from some external source. It needs to be given the credit.

Referencing gives credit to the source from which you have got it. It means that you are acknowledging the help that you have acquired from that source in any way and also it ensures that you are not presenting someone else's work as yours.

Referencing makes your dissertation stronger as it ensures that ideas that you have presented have strong basis and are proven right in other researches or other sources too.

Another main purpose of referencing is that anyone who wants to read more on the topic can approach the other sources o the relevant topic.

How to use referencing?

Referencing always follows a specific format which has been approved internationally. Usually there are different formats for different types of sources. For example, reference of a book will be different from that of a journal or an article.

Institutions or international associations of the relevant field always have a defined standard format of the referencing. There are complete manuals available which should be followed when you are conducting a standard research or when your article is going to be presented for some journal.

Referencing within texts:

The sources must also be referenced within the text. Whenever anything from any source is mentioned, it is essential to give reference for it. This is to ensure honesty and depicts true researcher's behavior.

A reference usually includes author name (surnames & forenames), publication date, book title, place where it was published, publisher name. It there are several authors then all must be mentioned.

During referencing article, title of book and the editor name along with first to last page numbers of article are included. Web pages and lectures when taken as a source must also be referenced.

Referencing is not something that can be taken for granted or neglected because, the jury of any journal will first see your references for ensuring the quality of referencing and if it is done in the proper way or not.

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