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Apa In-Text Citation: The Basics: Hort Quotations

The document summarizes the basics of APA in-text citations. It discusses citing authors within the text and providing full references at the end. For direct quotes, the author, year, and page number are used. For paraphrasing, only the author and year are needed. The document covers citing one or multiple authors, organizations as authors, secondary sources, personal communications, and sources without page numbers, all following APA style guidelines.

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Kim Ánh
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44 views4 pages

Apa In-Text Citation: The Basics: Hort Quotations

The document summarizes the basics of APA in-text citations. It discusses citing authors within the text and providing full references at the end. For direct quotes, the author, year, and page number are used. For paraphrasing, only the author and year are needed. The document covers citing one or multiple authors, organizations as authors, secondary sources, personal communications, and sources without page numbers, all following APA style guidelines.

Uploaded by

Kim Ánh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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APA IN-TEXT CITATION:

THE BASICS
The APA format follows the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name
and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, for example, (Jones, 2018), and a
complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or making
reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to the author and year
of publication and not the page number in your in-text reference. All sources that are cited in the text must
appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

I. SHORT QUOTATIONS
1. If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and
page number for the reference (preceded by “p.”). Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that
includes the author’s last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses:
According to Jones (1998), “Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was
their first time” (p. 199).
Jones (1998) found “students often had difficulty using APA style” (p. 199); what implications does
this have for teachers?
2. If the author is not named in a signal phrase, place the author’s last name, the year of publication, and
the page number in parentheses after the quotation:
She stated, “Students often had difficulty using APA style” (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer
an explanation as to why.

II. LONG QUOTATIONS


Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block of typewritten lines and omit
quotation marks.
Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin. The parenthetical citation should
come after the closing punctuation mark.
Jones's (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time citing
sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a
style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)

III. IN-TEXT CITATION CAPITALIZATION, QUOTES, AND ITALICS/UNDERLINING


1. Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: D. Jones.
2. If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or
greater within the title of a source: Permanence and Change.
Exceptions apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs: Writing New
Media, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
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(Note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Writing new media.)
3. When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word: Natural-Born
Cyborgs.
4. Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: “Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of
Hitchcock's Vertigo.”
5. Italicize the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections, movies, television series,
documentaries, or albums: The Closing of the American Mind; The Wizard of Oz; Friends.
6. Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles, articles from edited
collections, television series episodes, and song titles: “Multimedia Narration: Constructing Possible
Worlds.”

IV. SUMMARY OR PARAPHRASE


If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author and
year of publication in your in-text reference:
According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.

V. IN-TEXT CITATIONS: AUTHOR/AUTHORS


APA style has a series of important rules on using author names as part of the author-date system. There
are additional rules for citing indirect sources, electronic sources, and sources without page numbers.
1. A Work by Two Authors:
Name both authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the word “and”
between the authors’ names within the text and use the ampersand (“&”) in parentheses:
Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...
(Wegener & Petty, 1994)
2. A Work by Three to Five Authors:
List all the authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses the first time you cite the source. Use the word
“and” between the authors’ names within the text and use the ampersand (“&”) in parentheses:
Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, and Harlow (1993) argued that …
(Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993)
In subsequent citations, only use the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” in the signal phrase or in
parentheses:
Kernis et al. (1993) further explained …
(Kernis et al., 1993)
3. Six or More Authors:
Use the first author's name followed by et al. in the signal phrase or in parentheses.
Harris et al. (2001) argued...
(Harris et al., 2001)

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4. Unknown Author:
4.1. If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first
word or two in the parentheses.
4.2. Titles of books and reports are italicized; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation
marks.
Note: In the rare case the “Anonymous” is used for the author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous,
2001). In the reference list, use the “Anonymous” as the author.
5. Organization as an Author:
If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or
in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source:
According to the American Psychological Association (2000),...
If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the
source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations:
First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000)
Second citation: (MADD, 2000)
6. Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses:
When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the
reference list (viz., alphabetically), separated by a semi-colon:
(Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983)
7. Authors with the Same Last Name: To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last names:
(E. Johnson, 2001; L. Johnson, 1998)
8. Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year:
If you have two sources by the same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year
to order the entries in the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text citation.
Research by Berndt (1981a) illustrated that...
9. Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, and Afterwords:
When citing an Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword in-text, cite the appropriate author and year
as usual.
10. Personal Communication:
10.1. For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person communication, cite the communicator’s
name, the fact that it was personal communication, and the date of the communication.
(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).
A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal
communication, November 3, 2002).
10.2. Do not include personal communication in the reference list.
11. Unknown Date:
If no date is given, use the abbreviation “n.d.” (for “no date”).

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12. Sources Without Page Numbers
When an electronic source lacks page numbers, use the abbreviation “para.” followed by the paragraph
number: (Hall, 2001, para. 5).
13. Secondary Source
Sometimes an author writes about research that someone else has done, but you are unable to track down
the original research report. The phrase “as cited in” in the parenthetical reference indicate you have not
read the original research.
According to Culver (as cited in Jones, 2009), learning APA “can be tough, but like any skill, it just
takes practice” (p. 23).
In addition, the mastery of APA increases an author's chance of scoring well on an assignment
(Culver, as cited in Jones, 2009).
Only list the secondary source in the References

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