This quote still gets on my last nerve... That's what many thesis writers think. Quoting seems to be THE biggest problem when writing a bachelor's or master's thesis. Academic writing courses spend more than half of the time on rules for proper citation . Nevertheless, as you write, the question will probably come to your mind: How do I cite this source? You can safely save yourself eighty percent of all worries with the following simple tips. Good luck with your bachelor's or master's thesis!
Quoting tip 1: Add all relevant sources to the source list IMMEDIATELY!
Before writing a chapter , all of your appropriate sources must be in the source list. This means the metadata such as: (Meffert, H. (2013). Marketing Management: Analysis—Strategy—Implementation. Springer-Verlag.). There are standards for this metadata. You should pay attention to these and you will save a lot of time and nerves. A simple trick is to take the references from Google Scholar. There are actually only three basic types of sources: books , articles (studies or papers) and the rest. Actually, the rest should not appear in an academic work at all. But you often also need other sources, which of course can usually be found on the Internet. You need to be careful when working with online sources .
Citing tip 2: Find out about the citation requirements at the beginning!
The university's guidelines for citations are the law for you. You will ALWAYS stick to it. So it's best to ask about it at the examination office. Then consistently enter the sources in the source list and match them with the specifications. Some sources can be easily cited and entered. Then there are problematic sources. In such cases, you should usually think carefully about whether to ask the supervisor. As a rule, these are not sources worth citing. For example, you should not cite old theses. But you can learn a lot from them.
Citing tip 3: Make sure you have enough sources worth citing!
You should only cite academic sources such as books and studies. That would be best of all. But there are still a lot of sources on the Internet for many topics, such as announcements from ministries, legal texts or evaluations of all kinds. But if the author or publisher is unknown , then you cannot use this source. Find another source or rephrase the passage. A very simple solution is to find many suitable sources on the topic right from the start. This works with the right search terms. Then your red thread will also become visible .
Quoting Tip 4: Insert XXXX in incomplete places!
There was a scandal some time ago. A chemistry doctoral student had submitted her dissertation. In a footer there was a leftover note from the supervisor. In it he suggested that she should make up something at this point. This idea of coming up with something or making something up could of course be misunderstood as simply inventing something. However, he meant the representation of a certain context using visual elements... Apparently she missed the passage in the end. At least that's what went through all the forums... You'll definitely be in a time crunch at the end of your bachelor's or master's thesis. Then you could miss problem areas... But not with our trick : whenever a source is not yet complete, insert an XXXX . This means you can quickly find this spot again and work through all of these spots at once. These are good no-brainers for in between, to relax. Then you won't forget them when you finish it. In any case, such a scandal won't happen to you with XXXX.
Quoting Tip 5: Never quote a source from another source!
You usually get into this embarrassment with your bachelor's or master's thesis if you use old work . There are so many beautiful quotes in there... Of course, obtaining this old source from which the quotes were quoted is very difficult in a short space of time. That takes work. But the bad impression of a "quoted from" (and then a short study paper as a source follows...) ruins your otherwise good work. Quoting from any other source shows above all that you had no desire to get this other source. At some point it will be possible to read EVERYTHING digitally. But until then, you have to refrain from making these so-called secondary quotes . So either find this source or a replacement, or write something else, with a different source. Silvio Gerlach and the Aristolo team wish you lots of fun and success in writing your bachelor’s or master’s thesis. 
These 5 tips for citing in your bachelor's or master's thesis save time and nerves. This means you can write a very clean thesis in a short time.
