Citing Research

Choose one standard style, and stick to it throughout your action thesis. APA style (American Psychological Association) is easy to work with and widely used. You can use a different style, but ifyou do, make sure you use it accurately and consistently. The examples below are APA style. For help with it, or another commonly-used style, you can consult the following links:

APA Style Guide, reflecting the 1999 APA Manual, 4th Edition Short, easy to use guide for references!

APA Manual Crib Sheet If you have additional questions about writing

Citing Electronic References, using APA Style Go here if you couldn't find what you needed using the first link above.

MLA Guide Use this if you prefer the citation form used often in the humanities.

Turabian Chicago Manual of Style This is the style used with numbered footnotes, common in the social sciences.

Referring to literature in the chapters:

Generally, when writing about a single published work, refer to it in terms of the name(s) of the author(s), and date of publication. For example, "Specifically, Jordan (1985) discussed cultural compatilibity. . ." Or "Mohatt and Erickson (1981) conducted similar work with Native American students." Do not refer to articles using vague references like, "the first article I read said. . ." or "Some of the writers I looked at felt. . ." Readers cannot tell exactly what such sentences are referring to.

If there were two authors, name both of them. (You may be second author someday, and won't want to be ingored when people discuss your work.) If there are more than two, you can name the first author, followed by "and colleagues." For example, "Hall and his colleagues (1991) said. . ."

References at the end

Everything you cite in the action thesis should be in the references section at the end of the thesis; but do not include anything in the references section that you do not cite in the text somewhere. Organize the references in alphabetical order, according to the last name of the first author.

Generally, APA style looks like this:

articles:

McCormick, T. E. (1990). Collaboration works! Preparing teachers for urban realities. Contemporary Education 61 (2): 129-134.

Last name of author, initial of first, middle name. (include all authors) (date). Title of article. Name of Journal volume (issue): pages.

books:

Edwards, A. L. (1953). Edwards personal preference schedule. New York: The Psychological Corporation. .

Last name of author, initial of first, middle name. (include all authors) (date). Title of book. City of publication: Publisher.