How to Cite a Dissertation APA: The Beginner’s Guide

Every college or university student is faced with a huge amount of writing assignments. Some of them can be written with ease, but most of them require information from various sources. These can be books, articles, websites, and also dissertations. In order for your paper not to be accused of plagiarism, you need to take care to cite a dissertation correctly, using MLA citation for dissertation, APA or Chicago style.

We have created you a detailed guide that will help to understand the issue. Use it to succeed!

Dissertation Citation: What You Need to Know?

During your studies at the university, you will learn that there are different citation formats of formatting. One of them is APA style dissertation, a style of the American Psychological Association. Most often it is used for work in the field of psychology and education.

How is this style different from others?

The APA style was created by sociologists and scientists studying behavior problems for its use in term papers, research reports, technical and economic analyses, literature reviews, and methodological articles. Of course, these standards are not eternal. The association can make some amends from time to time. That’s it is important to make sure that you’re reading the most relevant guide. Then you’ll follow current requirements.

APA citation format provides many technical details: font size, line spacing, margins, headers. To get the best grade for your paper, it is necessary to fulfill all these requirements, for example:

• Citing a dissertation APA, for the body text, use 12-point size serif fonts (e.g. Times New Roman). For titles and captions of illustrations, use a sans-serif font (for example, Arial);
• while writing the text, you should use double spacing. Even when it goes about quotes, footers, headings. Include body text and references. All illustration captions are used with double spacing also;
• make sure the first line of each paragraph is set to indent 1.27 cm (1/2 in.);
• align the text to the left. And the right margin you should leave ‘jagged’.

You should also know the specifics of the citation. Read our tips to succeed.

How to Cite a Dissertation in APA?

Here are some suggestions that will come in handy in case you use APA citation:

• First of all, you need to specify the author of your dissertation. First, write the last name, and then after the comma, his or her initials. If there is more than one author, list them in the correct sequence and separate the names with commas, for example,

Smith M., Peterson K.S., Mally N.D.

You will also have a list of references where you will list all the links used but in alphabetical order.

Smith M. (2015).

• It’s time to mention the title of the dissertation. Keep in mind that headers can have different lengths, you need to specify them completely. Write the entire title in italics and save the author’s punctuation. With a capital letter, it is necessary to write only the first word in the sentence, as for ordinary sentences.

As an example of citing:

Smith M. (2015). Name of the dissertation.

• For a correct citation format, it is very important to indicate exactly where you got access to the dissertation.

For example, if it was designed for an American or Canadian audience, you could find it in the commercial database of ProQuest. Or on the website of the grant institution. After the title of the dissertation, you need to write ‘obtained from …’ then add the registration number in brackets. You do not need to set a point citing ProQuest dissertation in APA.

• Your last step, but no less significant is proofreading. After you have completed the quotation, make sure that you have correctly formatted the phrase and accurately provided the information. It is also essential to be sure that your entry is single-line. If there are several lines, after the first line you must use the indentation style.

You can find many sample publications with citation format on the Internet. If any design rule is not entirely clear, find a similar job and use the same APA citing a dissertation (you need to download the work from a trustworthy site).

How to Cite a Dissertation in Chicago and MLA Styles?

There are many citation formats, and each of them has its own characteristics. Therefore, before quoting, be sure to make sure that you understand the problem correctly and that you have the appropriate guide. If necessary, consult a professor or use dissertation writing services on EssayMap.

Back to citation formats. We offer you a brief overview of two more popular formats for your reference.

MLA Dissertation Citation

MLA style or Modern Language Association is another common citation format. It does not require the addition of any type of link. For example, if you read the source online, you can simply write “Internet” and the date you got access while using the MLA format dissertation.

This is how the correct citation for the MLA style will look:

Smith M. Dissertation. Rhode Island University, 2015.

As you can see, there are no particular difficulties.

How to Cite a Dissertation Chicago?

APA format for dissertation and Chicago style have enough similarities. At the same time, there are differences, too, and you can be sure of this when writing or quoting a dissertation. This style is suitable for the humanities. You need to make each letter of the name capitalized, as well as pay attention to the system of bibliography and footnotes.

Here is a good example of Chicago style:

Smith, M. “Name of Dissertation”. Ph.D. dissertation, Rhode Island University, 2015.

Dissertation Writing Assistance

Many students do an excellent job writing essays, term papers, and other types of papers. At the same time, quoting causes them real difficulties. This is really a difficult job, which requires perseverance, concentration, and even pedantry. So that you do not spend time on this, you can order a citation or check of citation in our professional service. Experienced dissertation writers are always ready to help you. They are well acquainted with academic requirements and will help achieve success with APA formatting.