When writing a dissertation, it is important to remember that there are certain rules and guidelines that need to be followed. One of the most important things is referencing. Referencing is a way of providing information about where you got your information from. This ensures that the reader can easily find more information on the topic if they want to. It also allows other scholars to use your work as the basis for their own research.
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Referencing is a necessity in a dissertation. There’s no way around it. If your paper does not include a proper reference list, then your skills will be looked upon negatively by your dissertation committee (if you fail, you’ll know why). Thus, referencing is important to make sure your paper meets the standard required by your school and it also ensures that your paper is aligned with what’s already been written on the same topic. However, how many references should you actually use? You will get an answer to this important question in this article.
Contents
References and Their Relevance
References are sources of earlier research projects carried out by trustworthy academics, which you include in your dissertation because it helps to:
- Strengthen the evidence in your research.
- Back up your research claims.
- Demonstrate the importance of your research and prevent plagiarism.
- Check your facts and their significance.
- Assist readers in recognising research gaps.
All of the aforementioned details enhance your research’s quality and dependability. It is the most fundamental, important, and crucial component of any academic work a student submits. Through the support of other pertinent sources, it helps the reader better understand the notion that, as a researcher, you are trying to convey.
Importance of Properly Citing Sources
- When ideas from other sources have been incorporated into your writing, you can let your readers know by citing those sources. Doing so is important for a variety of reasons. The reader can locate sources and use them to develop a compelling argument.
- It gives due credit to those who came up with the concepts, hypothesis, and conclusion of the research.
- It makes clear to the reader how your argument ties to the larger context.
The Minimum Amount of References
Referencing in a dissertation is highly essential though, the precise number of references is not really known. The answers can vary and greatly depend on different elements. Let us go over those elements in detail:
The Dissertation’s Degree Level
Your dissertation can be categorised by degree level into three groups: bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral.
Bachelors: A dissertation at the bachelor’s level is usually between 10,000 and 12,000 words long. To write an acceptable paper of this length, you should use at least 45 references and no more than 100.
Masters: A Master’s level dissertation should be between 15,000 and 25,000 words long. It should have between 150 and 200 references.
PhD: A doctorate dissertation typically has 50,000 words or more. For this kind of project, you should aim to include at least 250 references, with the potential for 300 or more.
The Dissertation’s Topic Idea
The number of references also relies on your dissertation’s thesis and subject. You might conduct a study on brand-new subjects, about which there is little or no information at all. If there is less material accessible, you will need to add whatever pertinent data you can find that relates to your study topic.
The academics and your university can easily reject your topic idea or your entire dissertation if there is not any such information available that is pertinent to your dissertation. The explanation for this is that a student at this stage is not trustworthy enough to conduct independent research without using any references.
On the other hand, if your dissertation topic and idea are based on a well-known concept, you will find a ton of references and research papers that are pertinent to your topic and can be added. Meanwhile getting help from cheap dissertation writing UK can be also important.
The Conditions of Your Academic Program
Concerning their dissertation policies, some universities or institutions have different requirements. Additionally, it depends on the methodology used, such as qualitative and quantitative data, and the nature of the dissertation. The source of references may be constrained by these methodologies factors as well.
Additionally, the researcher’s supervisor may have some influence because they may impose restrictions or make advancements regarding the dissertation references.
Assignment Type
The sort of task given may also affect how many references are mentioned.
Literature Review Paper:
A literature review, or the literature review portion of a paper or dissertation, will have the most references because the purpose of a literature review is to identify and report on many concepts found in various reliable sources.
Argumentative Essay:
References are needed in an argumentative essay to back up the thesis statement. However, fewer sources are required compared to a literature review, and a higher percentage of the content will consist of original thought and discussion.
Strengthen Your Dissertation
The more citations and references you include, it is believed, the more credible your dissertation will be, helping it to become much stronger. The rationale behind this is that including more citations shows that many other academics support your work and implicitly concur with its findings.
However, having too much of a good thing can be detrimental. It will not look professional to add a lot of extra references to parts of your dissertation that don’t need them. There may be a perception that the references are tacked on or are merely for appearances.
A Perfect Dissertation
The references and citations in a good dissertation should be pertinent and make sense in each sentence. In order to support the study, relevant citations must be used at the points in the dissertation where it exhibits and addresses the research issues.
You’d Prefer It To Yourself
If you want to make a solid argument, make extensive use of references. That is something done by everyone. The use of references makes it much easier to convince other people.
The Conclusion
The number of references an author includes in his/her work is directly proportional to the reputation of that work and author. The more references are present, the higher will be the impact factor. Thus, no matter where you look for referencing ideas from, always maintain a large number in your dissertations.
