Dissertations as a part of the academic needs to be precise and fulfill certain standard rules. Reports submitted either for scientific or technical reasons, are carried out and put forth as result of a lot of research from other referencing materials found on similar topics from existing reports. It is always recommended to keep the source of information as transparent as possible. Otherwise, when a person cites directly from another’s work without mentioning the source of information, they can be accused of plagiarism which is taken strict action against. If a student is found guilty of plagiarism they might receive grade zero or may even be suspended altogether.
Apart from the widely used Harvard style of Referencing system, APA(American Psychological Association),MLA(Modern Languages Association) we also have the Chicago Referencing system known as the CMS(Chicago Manual of styles).
The CMS is used both in humanities and social sciences. It is a little more complicated than the MLA or the APA. The CMS consists of two basic dissertation styles namely, i.) The humanities style (notes and bibliography system) ii.) The author-date system.
The humanities style is used by people submitting documents related to literature, history and arts. In the notes or bibliography system, at the point of reference in the document there is a superscript of numbers inserted that correspond to the number sequentially placed in the footnotes at the bottom of the page or endnotes listed at the end of the document.
On the contrary, the author-date system has been widely followed by those submitting documentation in the physical, natural and social sciences. In this system the sources of information is briefly acknowledged in the text usually in parenthesis, in a format that includes the author’s last name and the date of publication. These brief citations are elaborated in detail in the list of references at the end of the documentation which are arranged in a sequential order.
Inclusion of quotations should be minimized. However, if it is included in the text, make sure that if the quotation length is less than two lines it should be in continuation to the text but marked within quotation marks. While if the quotations are more than a line or two they must be represented as a separate paragraph. Citations for the quotes may be added into the text without hampering the flow of the text.
In case of multiple sources of references in a single statement it is not very necessary to mention both the author’s names, however, if you want to include multiple authors who have made the same point you can do so just in the way they appear in the bibliography i.e. alphabetically and separate the different authors with a semicolon. Avoid words such as Co., Inc., Pty. Ltd. & Sons that are not needed to identify the publisher. Consistent spacing and use of punctuation is required.
Thus with this brief account of some general rules of the CMS and with the help of a supervisor, dissertations submitted can be made to look perfectly composed and researched on and helps create the required impression on your reader.
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