If you’re referring to your own survey research (and its results), you don’t normally need to use a formal APA Style citation. What you do instead depends on which of the following is true:
Continue reading: How to cite a survey in APA Style (6th edition)
Web resources form a separate category in APA Style. They consist of four components: author, publication date, title and URL.
Unfortunately, some of these components are often missing. For instance, there may be no author or publication date. What should you do if this is the case?
Continue reading: How to cite a webpage with no author, date, or title in APA Style (6th edition)
After you’ve read our guides to defining a research problem and writing a problem statement, take a look at the full-length example to see how you can fit all the parts together.
Continue reading: Problem statement example
Some dissertations include a separate advisory report that is specifically designed for a company or organization that wants to act on the author’s advice.
An advisory report should be centered on opinions that are well substantiated – which means it’s more than just the list of recommendations that you include in the main body of your dissertation. You also need to weigh the recommendations against each other and elaborate the consequences that each will have for your “client.”
Continue reading: Purpose and structure of an advisory report
If you have done research for a client company or organization, you should include recommendations for action in relation to the problem you investigated. Based on the findings of your research, what specific solutions are possible and what measures should the client implement?
Recommendations are generally included at the very end of your conclusion chapter. If your client prefers, you can also present them in a separate advisory report.
Continue reading: Recommendations for a client
Once you’ve finished collecting and analyzing your data, you can begin writing up the results. This is where you report the main findings of your research.
All relevant results should be reported concisely and objectively in a logical order. You may use tables and graphs to illustrate specific findings.
Don’t include subjective interpretations of why you found these results or what they mean – your evaluation should be saved for the discussion.
Continue reading: Writing up your results in a thesis or dissertation
A conceptual framework illustrates what you expect to find through your research. It defines the relevant variables for your study and maps out how they might relate to each other.
You should construct a conceptual framework before you begin collecting data. It is often represented in a visual format.
This article explains how to construct a conceptual framework for an expected cause-and-effect relationship, incorporating relevant variables that might influence that relationship.
Continue reading: Constructing a conceptual framework
Reading other students‘ theses can help you in your own thesis writing process. Luckily, most universities have a thesis database. In these databases, you can find out who has written about your topic and how they approached it.
Some theses are only accessible via your university library, although more and more universities are opening the doors of their databases to the general public.
Continue reading: Overview of thesis databases
A citation style is a set of rules on how to cite sources in academic writing. Whenever you refer to someone else’s work, a citation is required to avoid plagiarism.
Citation style guidelines are often published in an official handbook containing explanations, examples, and instructions. The most common citation styles are the following:
However, there are many other widely used styles. In this guide, we will cover all the main citation styles used by universities and journals.
If you are following MLA or APA style, you can use the free citation generator to easily create your citations.
MLA Citation Generator APA Citation Generator
Continue reading: Citation styles guide: Choosing a style and citing correctly
When writing your dissertation, research paper or essay, you will have to consistently follow the conventions of a specific style of English. The most commonly used forms are American English, British English and Australian English. Although these dialects follow many of the same rules, they also have some important differences in spelling, punctuation and word choice.
Check with your supervisor or department to find out if you are expected to use a specific style of English. If you are allowed to choose, pick the style that feels most natural to you. Make sure you set the correct proofing language for your document (in Microsoft Word, select “Review” and then “Language”).
Continue reading: The main differences between US and UK English
