A dissertation citation style or a format consists of the rules that should be followed for documenting the dissertation. There are four basic types of the dissertation citation styles. First is the MLA style of writing, second is the APA style of writing, third is the Chicago/Turabian and fourth is the IEEE style of writing that is often adopted by dissertation writing services. You should select one of them by following the guidelines of your supervisor. In this article, we will provide you a brief discussion of these dissertation citation styles.
1) MLA
The Modern Languages Association or MLA style of writing is usually used when you are going to write a dissertation in the liberal arts and humanities field. The basic features of this format are given below;
a) Paper margin
The paper margin should be set at one inch from the top, bottom, left and right.
b) Font size and type
The font size should be 12 pt. throughout the dissertation. You should try to use a legible font style like “Times New Roman” in your dissertation.
c) Spacing
You should try to use double-spacing throughout the dissertation. There is no need to use some extra spacing in the title or headings of your dissertation.
d) Text identification
When you are going to write some text in the body of your dissertation, then you should try to write your text half inch away from the left margin of the paper. This half inch is equal to the 5-7 spaces. You should try to use the Tab button only once instead of using the Space button for the 5-7 times for the text identification.
e) Pagination
Before pagination in your dissertation, you should try to read the instructions of your supervisor. Some supervisors may ask their students to do pagination at the upper left corner of the page. On the other hand, some supervisors may ask their students to do pagination at the upper right corner of the page. Mostly, the supervisors provide guidelines their students to do pagination at the upper right corner of the page.
f) Endnotes
Endnotes should be written on a separate page and this separate page is known Work Cited Page.
2) APA
American Psychological Association or APA writing format is the most widely used citation style writing format for most of the academic papers. This style is particularly useful for the Science subjects.
a) Paper margin
Paper margin should be at one and a half inch from the top, bottom, left and right margins of the paper.
b) Font size and style
The style of the font should be” Times New Roman”. The font size should be 12 pt. This style and size should remain same throughout the whole dissertation.
c) Spacing
There should be double spaced between the words throughout the dissertation.
d) Text alignment and indentation
The alignment in the MLA style of writing should be flush left.
e) Order of pages and pagination
First of all, you should write the title page. In the second, you should write the abstract. In the third, you should write the body. In the fourth, you should try to write the references page. In the fifth, you should write the Footnotes. In the sixth, you should write the tables and at last there comes the figures page. The page numbers should appear at one inch from the right corner of each page.
f) Title page
The title page should contain the title of your dissertation. You should also write your name, your supervisor name, your section, your department name and your roll number on the title page. When you are going to make a title page, then you should read the guidelines of your supervisor. You should try to make the title page of your dissertation by following the guidelines of your supervisor.
3) Chicago/Turabian
It is a style of documenting the papers that has published by the Chicago University Press in 1960. In this writing style, we should try to take of these things;
a) Page numbers
The page numbers should be written at the upper right corner of each page. It should be at one inch from the upper right corner of the page.
b) Paper margin
There should be one inch paper margin from the left, right, top and upper margin of the page.
c) Spacing
There should be double-spacing throughout the whole dissertation. There is no need of extra spacing in the any section of the dissertation either it is a title page or any heading in the dissertation.
d) Identing
When you are going to write some text in the body of your dissertation, then you should try to write your text half inch away from the left margin of the paper. This half inch is equal to the 5-7 spaces. You should try to use the Tab button only once instead of using the Space button for the 5-7 times for the text identification.
e) Footnotes
Footnotes are used only when you are going to quote or paraphrase anything. When we are going to write a dissertation, then there is a possibility that we are not able to write a quote or even a paragraph in our own words, and then we will need to write this quote or paragraph as it is by using the quotation marks.
4) IEEE
When we are going to write a dissertation of any technical field, then this style of writing is very useful for us. IEEE stands for “The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers”. This is particularly useful in computer science. IEEE style is based on the Chicago style of writing. There should be one inch margin from the left, right, top and bottom of the page. You should use double-spacing between the words throughout the whole dissertation. In the similar, Footnotes are used only when you are going to quote or paraphrase anything.
When we are going to write a dissertation, then we should read the guidelines of our supervisor in order to select the writing style.