Using Sources (APA)

1. When using APA format, follow 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, and a complete reference should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

2. 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 in your in-text reference.

                       Example:

Jones (1998) compared student performance ...

3. 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, but APA guidelines encourage you to also provide the page number (although it is not required.)

Example:

In a recent study of student performance (Jones, 1998), ...

4. If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference.

Example:

In 1998, Jones compared student performance ...

5. If there is no author to cite, such as when you are citing a web page that lists no author, use an abbreviated version of the title of the page in quotation marks to substitute for the name of the author.

Example:

A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using APA," 2001).

6. If you are citing a work that has no author and no date, use the first few words from the title, then the abbreviation n.d. (for "no date").

Example:

In another study of students and research decisions, it was discovered that students succeeded with tutoring ("Tutoring and APA," n.d.). 

7. Personal communications, such as e-mail messages to you, or private interviews that you conducted with another person, should be referred to in your in-text citations but NOT in your reference list. (For more information, see page 214 of the Publication Manual.) To cite a personal communication, provide initials and last name of the communicator, the words personal communication, plus an exact date in the body of your paper.

Example:

P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2002).

CITING IN-TEXT

Here are the basic rules for formatting citations in the body of your paper:

1.         Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names.

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.

3·         When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word.

4·         After a colon or dash in a title, capitalize the first word.

5·         Italicize the titles of longer works such as books, edited collections, movies, documentaries, or albums.

6·         Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles, articles from edited collections, television shows, and song titles.

7·         If a work has two authors, cite both names every time the reference appears in your text. Join the authors' names with the word and.

8·         If a work has three, four, or five authors, cite all of the authors the first time you refer to the work in your text. The next time you refer to the work, shorten the citation to the last name of the first author plus the words et al. Join the authors' names with the word and if you are referring to them in the text; join the authors' names with an ampersand (&) if you are referring to them in a parenthetical citation.

9·         If a work has six authors (or more), cite only the last name of the first author plus the words et al.

QUOTATIONS

To indicate direct quotations of fewer than 40 words in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author, year, and specific page citation in the text, and include a complete reference in the reference list. Punctuation marks, such as periods, commas, and semicolons, should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quotation but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.

Below is the specific instructrions from the APA manual regarding quotes under 40 words- Note that the quote below is only 39 words so it is considered a "short quote".!

 

More Examples:

·         She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style," (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.

·         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?

Long Quotations (block quotes)

Place direct quotations longer than 40 words in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented five spaces from the left margin. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation five spaces from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after closing punctuation mark.

Example:

·         Jones's 1993 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)

  The APA Reference List

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Your references should begin on a separate page from the text of the essay under the label References (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), centered at the top of the page. It should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.

 

 14 Basic Rules

1. Authors' names are inverted (last name first); give the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work unless the work has more than six authors. If the work has more than six authors, list the first six authors and then use et al. after the sixth author's name to indicate the rest of the authors.
   
2. Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work.
   
   
3. If you have more than one article by the same author(s), single-author references or multiple-author references with the exact same authors in the exact same order are listed in order by the year of publication, starting with the earliest.
   

 Examples:

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 66, 1034-1048.

Wegener, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1995). Flexible correction processes in social judgment: The role of naive theories in corrections for perceived bias. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 68, 36-51.

4. When an author appears both as a sole author and, in another citation, as the first author of a group, list the one-author entries first.

 Examples:

· Berndt, T. J. (1999). Friends' influence on students' adjustment to school. Educational Psychologist, 34, 15-28.

.Berndt, T. J., & Keefe, K. (1995). Friends' influence on adolescents' adjustment to school. Child Development, 66, 1312-1329.

5. References that have the same first author and different second and/or third authors are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the second author, or the last name of the third if the first and second authors are the same.

        Examples:

Bukowski, A. F. Newcomb, & W. W. Hartup, (Eds.), The company they keep: Friendship in childhood and adolescence. (pp. 346-365). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Wegener, D. T., Kerr, N. L., Fleming, M. A., & Petty, R. E. (2000). Flexible corrections of juror judgments: Implications for jury instructions. Psychology, Public Policy, & Law, 6, 629-654.

·         ......Wegener, D. T., Petty, R. E., & Klein, D. J. (1994). Effects of mood on high elaboration attitude change: The mediating role of likelihood judgments. European Journal of Social Psychology, 24, 25-43.

6. If you are using more than one reference by the same author (or the same group of authors listed in the same order) published in the same year, organize them in the reference list alphabetically by the title of the article or chapter. Then assign letter suffixes to the year.

Examples:

Berndt, T. J. (1981a). Age changes and changes over time in prosocial intentions and behavior between friends. Developmental Psychology, 17, 408-416.

Berndt, T. J. (1981b). Effects of friendship on prosocial intentions and behavior. Child Development, 52, 636-643.

When referring to these publications in your paper, use the letter suffixes with the year so that the reader knows which reference you are referring to. For example: "Several studies (Berndt, 1981a, 1981b) have shown that..." 

7. Use "&" instead of "and" when listing multiple authors of a single work.
   
8. If no author is given for a particular source, begin with and alphabetize by using the title of the work, which will be listed in place of the author, and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
   
9. Personal communications, such as e-mail messages to you, or private interviews that you conducted with another person, should not be cited in your reference list because they are not retrievable sources. You should make reference to these sources in your in-text citations only.
   
10. All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
    
11. When referring to any work that is NOT a journal, such as a book, article, or Web page, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second word in a hyphenated compound word.
    
12. Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
    
13. Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.
    
14. Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in edited collections.