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APA Style 7th Edition: In-Text Citations

When and How to Cite

When Should I Cite This?

Here is a general rule:

If it is not general knowledge, cite it!

You might ask, what do you mean by general knowledge?  These are things that most people know.  For example, most people know that freedom of speech is part of the First Amendment to the American Constitution.  You don't need to cite that.  If, however, you are talking about a specific court case involving freedom of expression, and you want to use some of the information from that court case, you would need to cite it.


Under What Circumstances Do I Cite Information?

Direct Quotation - Reproducing information word for word - must use quotation marks

Paraphrase - Rewording the information in your own words

Summary - Restating the main ideas of a quote, paragraph, or section in your own words

Note:  If you are summarizing the entire article, you do not need to provide a citation.

In-Text Citations: The Basics

In-Text Citations:  The Basics

If you use the author's name in your into, you would use the following convention, and notice that the year of publication follows the author's name:

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?

Note that the date follows the authors name, and you use p. in front of the page number.  Also, the in-text citation follows directly after the quote, even if the quote ends in the middle of the sentence.

If you are NOT using the author's name in your into, you would use the following convention:

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

Notice that because the author's name was not used, the citation now includes not only the page number, but the author's name and date of publication.

Note:  The examples above are courtesy of the OWL at Purdue and can be found via this link.

Block Quotes

When you have 40 words or more for a quote (which is roughly 4 lines or longer), you will need to use a block quote.  A block quote is indented.  You will use the indent arrows on your toolbar to do this.  The author and date conventions are the same as above, but the in-text citation itself now goes after the period at the end of the quote.

Example:

APA formatting can be very confusing for students, especially if they were taught MLA formatting first, which has different conventions and emphases than APA formatting.  In addition, some instructors still use APA6, instead of APA7, and this can be very problematic, as the cover page has actually changed.  There are now guidelines specifically for a student's cover page and for a professional's cover page.  In particular, the "Running head" is no longer part of the convention for APA formatting.  There are still many familiar aspects, however, such as the emphasis on the date of the publication and the author.  In addition, the p. is still used for the page number.  So, many of the changes are in the way in which a student might formulate the cover page. (Garcia, 2017, p. 161)

Note that the block quote is still double-spaced.

In-Text Citations: The Specifics

In-Text Citations:  The Specifics

Note:  The following information is taken directly from the OWL at Purdue with some slight modifications.  Please use the following link to see this information in its entirety.

A Work by One Author 

As Ahmed (2016) mentions... (p. 116).

(Ahmed, 2016, p. 116).

A WORK BY TWO AUTHORS

Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports... (p. 116).

(Wegener & Petty, 1994, p. 116).

A WORK BY THREE OR MORE AUTHORS

(Kernis et al., 1993, p. 116).

Kernis et al. (1993) suggest... (p. 116).

UNKNOWN AUTHOR

Use a truncated version of the title.

A similar study was done of students learning to format research papers ("Using Citations," 2001, p. 116).

Note: In the rare case that "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous, 2001, p. 116). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.

ORGANIZATION AS AN AUTHOR

According to the American Psychological Association (2000),... (p. 116).

If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, you may include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations. However, if you cite work from multiple organizations whose abbreviations are the same, do not use abbreviations (to avoid ambiguity).

First citation: (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD], 2000, p. 116)

Second citation: (MADD, 2000, p. 116)

AUTHORS WITH THE SAME LAST NAME

To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last names.

(E. Johnson, 2001, p. 116).

(L. Johnson, 1998, p. 2).

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) revealed strong correlations. However, a parallel study (Berndt, 1981b, p. 215) resulted in inconclusive findings.

ELECTRONIC SOURCES

If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date style.

Kenneth (2000) explained... (p. 15).

UNKNOWN AUTHOR AND UNKNOWN DATE

If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date").

Another study of students and research decisions discovered that students succeeded with tutoring ("Tutoring and APA," n.d., p. 16). 

SOURCES WITHOUT PAGE NUMBERS

When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to include information that will help readers find the passage being cited. Use the heading or section name, an abbreviated heading or section name, a paragraph number (para. 1), or a combination of these.

According to Smith (1997), ... (Mind Over Matter section, para. 6).

Note: Never use the page numbers of webpages you print out; different computers print webpages with different pagination. Do not use Kindle location numbers; instead, use the page number (available in many Kindle books) or the method above. 

INTRODUCTIONS, PREFACES, FOREWORDS, AND AFTERWORDS

When citing an Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword in-text, cite the appropriate author and year as usual and the corresponding page number, even if the page number is in lower case roman numerals.

(Funk & Kolln, 1992, p. iv)

CITING INDIRECT SOURCES

Generally, writers should endeavor to read primary sources (original sources) and cite those rather than secondary sources (works that report on original sources). Sometimes, however, this is impossible. If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the parentheses. If you know the year of the original source, include it in the citation.

Johnson argued that...  (as cited in Smith, 2003, p. 102).

(Johnson, 1985, as cited in Smith, 2003, p. 102).