If you are studying for a doctoral or master’s degree, you will probably have to write a long-form academic document. Depending on your institution, your document may be called a dissertation for a doctorate or a thesis for a master’s degree. In some other institutions, the document is referred to as a thesis for a doctorate and a dissertation for a master’s degree.
For your research to have an impact and contribute to the body of knowledge in a specific field, it must be trustworthy. Therefore, for your writing to be accepted by other scholars, you have to follow the basic rules and expectations of academic writing.
One of the central tasks in academic writing is to avoid plagiarism. It is taken very seriously in academic institutions. Scholars understand the need to respect the intellectual property rights of other researchers. A central aspect of avoiding plagiarism in academic writing is done through the use of citations.
This means that you always include citations when you use words, ideas, or information from a source, no matter how small or large of a role the information played in your research. If you do not give appropriate recognition to the sources that you use in your thesis or dissertation, your work can be viewed as unreliable and skewed.
All academic writing has a way that it is formatted and laid out. This is generally known as the style of the document.
When writing a research paper, thesis, or dissertation, you will have to decide what citation style to use. Your supervisor should be able to advise you on which citation style to use for your document. Some academic institutions will have a style guide in which the citation style is specified. However, when publishing a journal paper, the journal will prescribe a specific citation style.
There are over 200 formal citation styles used in academic writing, each with its own attributes. Examples of commonly used citation style guides include the American Medical Association (AMA) style, the Modern Language Association (MLA) style, the American Psychological Association (APA) style, the Harvard style, and the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS).
There are three common approaches to citation styles and how citations are presented in a document. This style is in relation to how you connect your text to the citation.
Key identifying details are quoted in parentheses, most commonly using round brackets. These details would include the author's last name and publication date and if relevant the page number.
The citation is broken up into two parts, a number is included in the text quoted in parentheses, often formatted in superscript. This number would then correlate to the applicable number in your numbered reference list at the end of the document.
The note citation is similar to the numerical citation with the exception that the full citation is in a footnote or end-note. The reference in parentheses can use a number or symbol and resets at the start of each page.
Depending on how your text and information are written, the subject of your sentence or a phrase, could change how you approach a specific citation. Are you quoting somebody else's words or are you referring to work done by somebody else concerning your topic?
An in-text citation is a short acknowledgement that you include in the text using a parenthetical citation format. There are two main approaches to in-text citation. Some citations focus on the person and some focus on the subject discussed in the sentence.
An author-prominent citation also called a writer-focused citation, is where the focus is on the author in the sentence. The author’s last name, year of publication, and page number or paragraph number are usually included in the citation.
Example
Smith (2010) found that most of the users of Social Medium M were younger than 35 (p. 1).
In this example, the author’s name is placed in the text of the sentence, with a reference to the page number at the end of the sentence.
In subject-prominent citations, also called idea-focused citations, the focus of the sentence is on the story that you are conveying in your writing.
Example
Many Social Medium M users are younger than 35 (Smith, 2010, p. 1). The author’s name and year of publication are placed at the end of the sentence with the page number.
Quotations are cited in a specific manner. A quotation is a passage of someone else’s words. When you cite a quotation, you should do the following:
- The quoted text should be enclosed in quotation marks, or formatted as a block quote.
- The period should be placed specifically in different types of quotations.
- The original author(s) should be correctly cited.
- The text should be identical to the original text.
If you name the author(s) in your sentence, you may use present-tense verbs, such as "states", "argues", "explains", "writes" or "reports" to describe the content of the quote.
Quotation marks are used for short quotations and block quotations for long quotations. Short quotations are placed in a sentence, while a block quotation is formatted into a separate ‘block’ of text.
Quotation marks are not used in block quotations, instead, you should place the text on a new line and indent the entire quote to separate it from your own words. If you are writing according to the APA style, for example, block quotations are 40 words or longer.
Example
Smith (2010) states, "With the exponential growth of the internet, students find sourcing appropriate literary sources difficult" (para. 3). [Fictitious quote.] [Author-prominent citation.],
Example
"With the exponential growth of the internet, students find sourcing appropriate literary sources difficult" (Smith, 2010, para. 3). [Fictitious quote.] [Subject-prominent citation.]
When using APA and MLA styles, your indented block should be 0.5 inches from the left, and the in-text citation should be placed after the period. You should check the rules of the style that you are using; it may have different specifications.
Example
Students find academic writing a daunting task.
With the exponential growth of the internet, students find sourcing appropriate literary sources for their literature reviews difficult. This impacts the quality of their literature reviews, which often do not cover their field of study adequately. Lacking sufficient citations could influence an examiner’s assessment. (Smith, 2010, p. 5) [Fictitious quote.]
Over-citing is probably safer than under-citing. Here are a few questions that you can ask when you cite.
Did I provide adequate commentary on the cited material?
The cited material should illustrate and support your story, rather than be a substitute for it. This means that you should avoid giving the reader a collection of sourced material without providing your interpretation of the sourced material.
Have I used the cited material to support the main idea of my story?
All cited material should contribute to the main argument that you are making in your thesis or dissertation. You should always keep in mind what the focus of your story is.
Have I relied too heavily on one source?
When writing up your research, you should ensure that you include a variety of sources covering several years. The body of knowledge in each discipline grows at different rates, for example, if you are writing up research about tree breeding, your sources may stretch over up to 30 years. On the other hand, because publications in molecular biological research appear far more frequently, citations that cover the recent few years should give good coverage of the literature.
Have I included too many quotations?
In academic writing, we mostly rely on paraphrasing when using other sources. Paraphrasing demonstrates your understanding of your topic and allows you to highlight which ideas contribute to your main argument. Overpopulating your writing with quotations gives the impression that you are unable to interpret sourced knowledge and need the words of other scholars to make a point.
Did I begin and end my paragraphs in my own voice?
The first sentence of each paragraph should be your topic sentence, and the last sentence should conclude the point of the paragraph and lead to the next. Between the introduction and closing of the paragraph, citations should occur.
Have I balanced the use of author-prominent and subject-prominent citations?
A paragraph that is overpopulated with author-prominent citations could create in the mind of the reader the idea of ‘this person said this, this person said this, and this person said this. ' When you use too many author-prominent citations, the reader might lose the point of your story. You should therefore use author-prominent citations with care and only when you feel an author’s prominence requires an author-prominent citation.
Each citation style has specifications for the different classes of sources. Here are a few examples of citations for the different classes of sources that you may use in your thesis or dissertation.
Example
Smith (2010) found that most of the users of social media were younger than 35 (p. 1).
Example
Many social media users are younger than 35 (Smith, 2010, p. 1).
Use the title of the source in your citation.
Example
Many students in higher education use various social media platforms to source literature for their research ("Use of Social Media in Higher Education," 2015, p. 10).
For a subsequent citation, use an abbreviated form of the title.
Example
Many students in higher education use various social media platforms to source literature for their research ("Higher Education," 2015, p. 10).
Two authors:
Example
Smith and Jones (2010) found that most of the users of social media were younger than 35 (p. 1).
Many social media users are younger than 35 (Smith & Jones, 2010, p. 1).
Three or more authors:
Use the first author’s name in the citation and replace the other authors' names with "et al."
Example
Smith et al. (2010) found that most of the users of social media were younger than 35 (p. 1).
Many social media users are younger than 35 (Smith et al., 2010, p. 1).
Usually, the end-of-sentence citation is used with the sources listed alphabetically or chronologically (depending on the citation style), and separated with a semicolon.
Example
Many students in higher education use various social media platforms to source literature for their research (Jones, 2012, p. 1; Smith, 2010, p. 5).
Information that comes from organisations, government agencies, corporations, or some other type of group can be expressed without an author’s name. Include the full title of the organisation the first time you use the citation. Thereafter, use an abbreviation, e.g., United Nations (UN) or World Health Organisation (WHO).
Example
The South African Department of Health (SADH) (2007) reported that the school feeding program has improved the general health of primary school pupils. [Fictitious statement.]
Sometimes you paraphrase the work of an expert mentioned in an article. However, the expert is not the author of the article you are reading. In your text, you need to mention the expert’s first and last names in the first citation and cite the article. In subsequent citations, only give the expert’s last name.
Example
UW psychology professor Kristin Wang claims international students with a minimum of one foreign friend adapt to college life more easily (as cited in Patel, 2016, p. 8).
Subsequent citation:
Example
Wang goes on to say... (as cited in Patel, 2016, p. 8).
Use the end-of-sentence citation; include the full title in quotation marks if short; otherwise, add only the first few words of a long title. Include the year (if known) or write n.d. (for "no date") if the date is unknown.
Example
More students than ever are choosing majors such as engineering and computer science since more high-paying jobs are available in these fields ("Pursuing Careers in STEM," n.d., para. 2).
A reference manager can be an academic author's best friend. Reference management software, also referred to as citation management software, or bibliographic management software, is software that you can use for recording and using bibliographic citations as well as managing your references.
Reference managers offer in-text citation templates for a variety of citation styles. Once you have recorded a citation, it can be used repeatedly to generate bibliographies, such as lists of references in scholarly articles, theses, and dissertations. Most reference management tools enable you to source references from online libraries and can perform several time-saving functions.
- Import references from databases and web pages.
- Organise, group and store references in folders.
- Capture and store full-text articles.
- Create bibliographies in the citation style and document format of your choice.
- Integrate with Microsoft Word through an add-in, so you can insert in-text citations and create a bibliography as you write.
There are many reference managers available. Some are free and others require a paid-for licence. Zotero, JabRef and Mendeley are free, while Endnote and RefWorks are well-known commercial managers that you have to pay for.
Managing, writing and formatting citations and references can be a challenge for even experienced academics. If you find the task difficult or overwhelming when citing sources in your thesis or dissertation, don't hesitate to reach out and ask for help. Graduate Mastery provides academic writing coaching and mentoring services and can advise and assist you in adding citations and generating bibliographies.