Citing a dissertation in APA
style becomes very important for students if the teachers have specified it in
their set of instructions and asked them to work on their papers in this
manner. Abbreviation for American Psychological Association, this style is most
frequently used within the social sciences, in order to cite resources. The
most important thing for students to remember when citing a dissertation in APA style is to capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title and any
subtitles, as well as the first letter of any proper nouns as well as the full
title of the book, including any subtitles, should be stated
and italicized.
As the APA style of citation
is mostly used in relation to the field of science, the belief is “less is
more” stands true for it. It is recommended that students are able to put
forward their points in the most clear and brief way without creating any
confusions. They need to be clear, direct and professional when writing their
paper so that there are no unnecessary details in their paper that add fluff to
it and take the readers’ attention off from the subject.
Basics of an APA Citation
Generally, APA citations
follow the following format:
Contributors.(Date). Title.Publication
Information. (full stop is a must)
Contributor Information and
Titles:
The main contributor(s) of the
source (mostly it is the name of the author) is placed before the date and
title. If there is more than one author, it is necessary to arrange the authors
in the same order found on the source. The first and the middle must be used
the first and middle name initials in the entire last name. It is also
essential to inverse all names before the title.
e.g. One author:
Smith, J. K.
(Date). Title.
Two authors:
Smith, J. K., & Sampson,
T. (Date). Title.
Three authors:
Smith, J. K., Sampson, T.,
& Hubbard, A. J. (Date). Title.
Eight or more:
Smith, J. K., Sampson, T.,
Hubbard, A. J., Anderson, J., Thompson, T., Silva, P.,…Bhatia, N.
(Date). Title.
Other contributor types
In many cases, the main
contributor is not an author, but another contributor type, such as an editor
for a book, a conductor for a musical piece, or a producer for a film. In this situation,
the students must follow the contributor with the contributor type (abbreviate
Editor(s) as Ed. or Eds. and most other roles can be spelled out in their
entirety).
Example for one contributor:
·
Smith, J. K. (Ed.). (Year
published). Title.
·
Lu, P. (Producer). (Year published). Title.
Two contributors examples:
·
Smith, J. K., & Sampson, T. (Eds.). (Year
published). Title.
·
Lu, P., &Winters, U. (Producers). (Year
published). Title.
Corporate or group authors
There can be many sources that
have corporate or group authors. When citing, it is important to use these
organizations in their entirety, and place them where the authors’ information
would be placed. If the organization is also the publisher of the source, it is
recommended to write “Author” instead of repeating the publisher name.