This week I had a short conversation with Nigel to clarify a few final questions before submitting my thesis proposal. Most of my questions were about Harvard referencing, page numbers, PDF sources, secondary citations and the structure of my chapters.
One of my main questions was about using PDFs that I had found online. Some of these PDFs did not have visible page numbers, so I asked whether it was acceptable to use the PDF page numbers instead. Nigel explained that this depends on the type of source. Books usually have page numbers, but journals or online PDFs do not always include them. He said that if proper page numbers are not available, it is not a major problem.
Nigel also explained that the bibliography should include the full source information, while the in-text citation only needs the author and date, and page numbers when relevant. This helped me understand the difference between what needs to appear in the main text and what needs to appear at the end in the bibliography.
I also asked about a source that quoted Paul Wells, because I found it difficult to access the original book and page. Nigel advised me that it is always better to use the primary source when possible, because another writer may have interpreted or quoted it incorrectly. However, if the original source cannot be accessed, it is acceptable to use the secondary source, as long as I am careful and accurate. This reassured me, because I had found a PhD thesis that cited Wells and included the page numbers.
Another question I asked was whether the citations in the document needed to be clickable, so that clicking on an author’s name would take the reader directly to the bibliography. Nigel said that this was not necessary and advised me not to make the academic paper interactive in that way, because it could disturb the marker while reading.
Finally, I asked about the chapter structure. I wanted to know whether each chapter should be labelled as “Chapter One”, “Chapter Two”, etc., followed by the topic title. Nigel confirmed that this was a good way to structure it, for example: “Chapter One: [Title]”, “Chapter Two: [Title]”, and “Chapter Three: [Title]”.
Overall, this conversation helped me feel more confident about the final referencing and formatting of my thesis proposal. Nigel reassured me that small referencing issues can be corrected through feedback, but that I should make sure to submit the work through Turnitin so that any problems can be checked properly. After this conversation, I felt more prepared to reread my proposal, make the final adjustments and submit it.