Referencing a thesis

Learn all about referencing a thesis in MLA & APA styles

Bringing in references or quotes into your thesis is one matter; referencing a thesis is completely different. It refers to the way in which you refer to the dissertation or thesis of a writer or scholar. You need to mention it in a proper format in your References section and Bibliography, if it is pertinent to your study. There are certain rules to be followed while mentioning the name, institution and topic. It would be a good idea if you get in touch with Thesistown.com for the various rules regarding this kind of referencing. What you also need to know is how the referencing is done for the MLA and APA styles. Read on and find out.

What a reference should contain

There are many sources that a research scholar has to refer to in the course of research that is carried out. It could be a book, website, journal, newspaper or even a thesis. We are concerned about referring to a thesis in the appropriate way, if the citation style used is the MLA or APA style. This is an imaginary example of a thesis on African American poetry. These are the components of a reference, irrespective of whether it is MLA or APA style; learn more about referencing a thesis from our thesis experts:

Name of the thesis:       Racial protest and angst in the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks

Name of the scholar:     Jane Mary Doe

Name of the institution:  University of Michigan, Dearborn, USA

Name of the degree:    Master of Arts

Year of submission:        2003

You need to ensure that all the info mentioned above is contained in the citation. The order in which the same should appear depends on the citation style.

MLA style

If you are to cite the above reference in the MLA style, it appears as follows:

Doe, Jane Mary. Racial protest and angst in the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks. MA thesis. University of Michigan, Dearborn, Michigan. 2003. Print.

The word, print, at the end of the citation indicates that you have used the hard copy of the thesis as a source.

APA style

When you cite the same thesis in APA style, it appears as follows:

Doe, J. M.  (2003). Racial protest and angst in the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks. MA Thesis. University of Michigan, Dearborn, Michigan. 

You could use these methods of referencing when you want to bring in a bit of info from the thesis or dissertation of any academic scholar. The only point that you need to pay attention to is the question of relevance. Do not use sources that are not directly connected with your thesis. It takes the line of discussion away from the focal point.

Make sure that you are aware of the rules of writing an academic thesis before you begin. Whether it is a persuasive thesis on a contentious topic or an MA written thesis, you need to keep track of rules at every stage of the writing process. Since referencing a thesis is an integral part of scholarly writing, Thesistown.com would like to provide the right assistance for this at the opportune time.

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