Skip to main content

Think before start selecting a Topic

What is the importance of correct citation?


In a thesis or project, every statement must be substantiated by citing its source. Student often has a tendency to make statements or sometimes sweeping generalizations without providing the supporting documentation. This is an especially common occurrence when the project subject is one with which the student has considerable familiarity through clinical experience. These statements may be accepted as fact by those knowledgeable in that field and it doesn’t occur to students that these assertions must be backed with citations. A few examples of this type of statement are ” intellectual capital = competence × commitment.”; “Organizations around the world are increasingly being confronted with complex, intractable problems”; “Changing the nature of the composition of ages has a big impact on the education system.”. As self-evident as these types of statements may be, for the project they require the substantiation of one or more citations. Without citations, the work lacks credibility.

The other important issue related to citations is that scholars are expected to credit the source of ideas. For example, if you report one author’s critique of another’s work, you can not report the critical analysis as if it were your own. To do so would amount to plagiarism.

References to the work of others can take three forms. The author and year can be mentioned directly in the text: proposed by Ulrich (1998): intellectual capital = competence × commitment.

If an author’s ideas or work is discussed but the author is not mentioned directly in the text, the author can be cited at the end of the sentence or at the end of the paragraph in a lengthy discussion:

Organizations around the world are increasingly being confronted with complex, intractable problems (Hall, 2008).

When a direct quotation is used, the page number is included in the citation. Short quotations may be included with a paragraph; while longer quotations should be presented in an indented, single spaced block.

Graham (2003, p. 112) noted: 
Changing nature of the composition of ages has a big impact on the education system.

Please refer for more information  http://www.thesistrainer.com/p/do-citation.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Analysis part of the thesis

The purpose of this is to present the results of the analysis of the data. The presentation should be in sufficient detail to enable the reader to judge the adequacy of the analysis.  If you examine the data analysis section of the project, you will find that two characteristic styles are used in the presentation. The first style, which I will refer to as the “hypothesis analysis” style, typically divides the chapter into sections which correspond to the hypotheses. In this manner of presentation, the hypothesis is presented, followed by the summary of the statistics relative to the hypothesis, and concluded with a statement which summarizes whether or not the hypothesis was rejected. In the second style of presentation, which I will refer to as the “analysis by instruments” style, the data are presented in various sections which correspond to the dependent variables (research instruments) used in the design.  With this style of presentation, the data are summ...

How to evaluate the project?

Evaluating the Project  The project should be evaluated at two levels. The first of these levels is the text and the logic of the presentation. The second level of evaluation should focus on the student’s mastery of the material. There are certain minimum requirements that the project or thesis must meet before it should be considered for acceptance. These minimal requirements deal with the manner of presentation of the project problem, its parameters, and analysis. To facilitate the examination of a project, I’ve provided a comprehensive checklist and inventory of the minimal requirements. For example: Is the topic area of the study clearly specified early in the text (within the first two pages)?  Is the topic area of the project derived from or cast into its historical perspective?  Are the major independent and dependent variables logically derived and their importance clearly evident?  Is the specific problem that the...

Think before start selecting a Topic

1. The topic should reflect your previous studies and experience. It should be related to your completed courses; your other research; and your political, cultural, or religious experience. 2. The necessary sources should be materially accessible. You should be near enough to the sources for convenient access, and you should have the permission you need to access them. 3. The necessary sources should be manageable. In other words, you should have the ability, experience, and background knowledge needed to understand the sources. 4. You should have some experience with the methodological framework that you will use in the thesis. For example, if your thesis topic requires you to analyze a Bach violin sonata, you should be versed in music theory and analysis.