How to cite a thesis in MLA formatting style

How to cite a thesis in MLA formatting style

When you get to the point of writing a thesis and then defending it, you are at the end of your important educational journey stage. How to cite a thesis in MLA? This paper should showcase your skills and ability to search for relevant data in a specific discipline and present research results in your original content. Feel free to use this guide as well as our help with writing a thesis if you need assistance in citing your thesis in MLA style (Modern Language Association).

A thesis is a final result of your independent doctoral work.  You need to write the best one to earn a master’s degree. Whenever you include information in your English paper, state how and where you retrieved it in the right order and based on university rules.

The importance of citing sources

Your bibliography or reference list should contain all the online directories, magazines, studies and books that you use to design and write your thesis. Ensure that you have a background research plan. It will help you find a database of interesting sources. The more details you note down about each source (its author, published date or year, URL, and others), the simpler it will be to find.

When you are writing your thesis, use sources to remind you of background information or different facts that can help you strengthen your research. Every time you use data from other places, you need to cite them. You need to know how to cite a thesis in MLA style because if you fail to do that in the right format or style, you risk facing plagiarism problems and low grades.

Popular referencing formats

There are certain academic standards that you should use to document all sources of information in your thesis. What are referencing formats? Most professors ask their students to write a thesis in MLA and APA referencing styles, but there are also Chicago, Turabian, and other alternatives.

The number of sources may vary, but you should provide readers with the same basic information about each one (dates, titles, and authors). MLA style requirements call a page with references as Works Cited. Please contact your tutors to determine the right set of rules to cite your thesis correctly.

Key information to cite in your thesis

Make a list to keep track of different magazines, books, and sites that you visit while following your thesis research plan. It will become a bibliography later. Write down key information for every source you use:

  • Publication date;
  • Author names;
  • Publication titles;
  • Publishing companies;
  • Publication places;
  • Page numbers;
  • Editor names if available;
  • Page titles if available;
  • Volume numbers if needed;
  • Organizations or companies posting web pages;
  • URLs;
  • The date you visited a web page.

Where to find bibliographic information?

You can find bibliographic data for different types of sources that you use in your thesis writing in many different places. That’s why it’s necessary to do some detective work to get the necessary details for to cite them all and references in your paper correctly. What are the best places to check? Try searching in:

  • Article headings;
  • Title pages of dictionaries, books, or encyclopedias;
  • Contents pages of magazines or journals;
  • Second, front, or editorial pages of newspapers;
  • Contact or About pages of websites;
  • Footers or headers of web pages.

What to do next?

When it’s time to turn your notes into a thesis bibliography, type all the sources into a special list and use formatting examples to ensure that you cite each of them correctly. List them all in the right alphabetical order using the last names of authors and follow the necessary thesis guidelines based on the MLA style.

What if sources have more than one author? Alphabetize them using the first one. If authors are unknown, alphabetize such sources of information based on their title to cite them properly in your thesis and earn the grade you deserve.

Why is it important?

You should cite your thesis in MLA style to let readers know that the facts and details you use have their authors or sources. The credibility and strength of your thesis paper depend on their validity, not only on your ability to represent sources of information clearly and without plagiarizing. If you don’t do that, academic consequences will be severe.

If you still have problems or difficulties with writing references in MLA style, get our professional help online to benefit from their effective solutions. Our qualified and experienced writers are willing to give their assistance whenever you need it and guarantee the best final result. Grab their helping hand and enjoy our service benefits!
 

Dissertations and Master's Theses

Master's thesis or dissertation can be used by others as sources. Following the 8th edition of MLA style rules, there is no difference in published or unpublished papers.

Here are the main elements of a dissertation citation in MLA style (in fact, they are the same as for a book): author's name, title (written in italics), and the date of publishing. In the end, you should write the type of document (e.g. "Ph.D. dissertation"). Include the institution before the type (it's not a necessary step). If you have accessed this manuscript online, please make sure you have placed it after all other elements as a second container.

Margareth, Joan Walter. Worldwide Institutional Agency: Strategic Reading in the NTSC Campaign. 2015. Whinston University. Ph.D. dissertation.

Samuel, George. Friendship, Communication, and Revised Critical Views: Worldwide Partnership. 2009. Saint Louis University, 

Ross, Mary. The Impact of Brands on the Value of Received Capital: Evidence from Worldwide Companies. 1999. Ph.D. dissertation. ProGuide Theses and Dissertations.   

Example and Explanations

Below, you can view an example and explanations of the cited work in MLA style:

Lois, Fridrich. How Stress Management Helps to Increase the Effectivity of Work. MS Thesis, The College of St. Patrick, 2018.

Autor: Lois, Fridrich.

Write the last name at the start and add the first and middle names.

Title and subtitle: How Stress Management Helps to Increase the Effectivity of Work.

Separate the title and subtitle by a colon. The proper words should be capitalized. Italicize the title and end it with a period. 

Publishing Status: MA Thesis,

Place a comma after the status. If it's a dissertation or a project, please use the words "MA project" or "dissertation".

Name of Institution of the Granted Degree: The College of St. Patrick,

Add the name of the college and place a comma in the end.

Year of Publication: 2018.

Place the year and end your citation with a period.

Don't miss our guide on Chicago dissertation citation and research denfense to get more useful details.