How to Use General Sources for Indexing Dissertations and Theses

It is necessary students to know that they can only come up with a top quality and custom dissertation when they pay attention to the guidelines for writing a paper and follow them. A dissertation and a thesis is a scholarly piece of research that is written after a lot of research, analysis and hard work. It is necessary for students to search for the best sources to seek the most relevant information and details for writing their paper. They must learn to use general sources for indexing dissertations and theses to do a good job on their assignment.

If you have been given to write a dissertation or a thesis, you must understand its significance and make sure to work according to the given guidelines and instructions to do well in class. The dissertation and thesis writing tasks help teacher assess students on basis of their research, writing and editing skills most effectively; the teachers can go through the papers and see how hard the students have worked on their assignments.

As these assignments are search based, the teachers want to see how well the students search for and use the sources in their paper. No matter for which topic or subject the dissertation or thesis has been given, the students will have to spend some time and efforts in coming up with resources that they can index and use in the paper to make it stronger and powerful in terms of content and arguments.

There are three types of resources that can also be called as the sources of general information; they are primary, general and tertiary sources. When working on your assignment, it is necessary that you keep in mind the type of these sources and how they can be used the best way when searching for information to write the paper.

Primary sources

These can be defined as the original material or information on which you can base your thesis or dissertation; it can be some original work like poem, diaries, surveys, records and even fieldwork and academic journal and other published material. It is basically new knowledge that comes to light and is recorded for current as well as later use.

Primary sources are called so as they offer a firsthand account of any event or time and are considered the most authentic and reliable. They are respected because of their original thoughts, reports on discoveries and event or for the new information they provide. The primary sources can be used for current information as well as information of the past but they appear in original search and can be trusted completely.

Secondary sources

These sources are the ones that describe the primary resources and are found in form of reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and textbooks or even critical surveys and reports or reviews.

Secondary sources include analysis, interpretation, synthesis and evaluation of the primary sources as they are not an entity on their own but they work with primary resources. Scholarly articles are the best example of secondary sources as they provide articles on particular subjects and topics and provide news regarding any development or happening going on.

Tertiary sources 

These sources are closely related to primary and secondary sources as they are used for organization and location of primary resources. They can be in form of indexes that provide citations for recognizing any piece of work such as the title of the books, its authors name, details regarding its publication, volume and issue number as well as the page number from where the information has been taken place.

They can also be in form of abstracts that are a summary of the primary and secondary sources and provide an idea of the information that you are looking for.

The tertiary sources can also be in database form that are available online as indexes that contain abstracts and provide students a chance to find what they are looking for most easily.

When searching for general sources for indexing dissertations and thesis, it is necessary that you keep an eye on what you are looking for and how it will help you. It is because each source has its own purpose, intend and audience etc. Unless you understand the source and see how it related to your dissertation or thesis, you will not be able to do a good job of using the source most efficiently.

When conducting research for their thesis and dissertation, students will face a lot of difficulties because not evidence is of equal weight and height. Some facts will be stated repeatedly at many sources while there will be some facts that are not so commonly known and this makes it tough for them as they do not know how to use them the best way. Teachers also recommend using information that has been properly verified and has a valid source and they believe primary source to be the ideal type of data as it provides original account especially when we talk about research or understanding particular situation. It is necessary that students learn how to use general sources for indexing dissertations and thesis so that they can do a good job on their assignments and succeed with good grades.