APA Style
What is APA Style?
APA Style is an editorial style developed by the American Psychological Association and used for written materials in the social and behavioral sciences. APA Style requires you to cite the sources you have used in two places: the in-text citation and as part of your reference list at the end of your paper.
How do I Format In-Text Citations?
In APA style, each quotation or paraphrase must include the author's last name and the year of publication. For quotations you must also include the page number.
Paraphrase
By paraphrasing (or summarizing), you convey the author's original meaning in your own words. Below are two examples:
The potential for truly integrated online research continues to develop at a rapid pace (Moore, 2001).
Baker (1989) comments on the fact that students who have a great interest in laboratory work attain good results.
Quotation
It is when a group of words taken are from a text or speech and repeated by someone other than the original author or speaker. The following is an example of a brief quotation:
They point out that, “Informational labels are especially important for nonprint materials because they can furnish critical information which otherwise might not be evident from looking at the item on the shelf” (Driessen & Smyth, 1995, p. 32).
How Do I Create a Reference List?
- Arrange your citations alphabetically by author’s last name
- Arrange anonymous (no author) works by the first significant word in the title
- Double-space between each entry
- Indent the second line of each entry (a hanging indent)
APA Example Citations
Source Type |
References Explainer |
References Example |
In-Text Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
Book |
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name. DOI (if available) |
Napoli, P. (2019). Social media and the public interest: Media regulation in the disinformation age. Columbia University Press. |
(Napoli, 2019) |
Webpage, Group Author |
Group name. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL. |
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (2019, November 21). Justice served: Case closed for over 40 dogfighting victims. https://www.aspca.org/news/justice-served-case-closed-over-40-dogfighting-victims |
(American Society, 2019) |
Scholarly Article |
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy |
Lee, C. Y., & Goldstein, S. E. (2016). Loneliness, stress, and social support in young adulthood: Does the source of support matter? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45(3), 568- 580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0395-9 |
(Lee & Goldstein, 2016) |
- APA 7 Quick GuideThe APA 7 Quick Guide is an accessible and printable PDF demonstrating how to cite common sources.
Helpful Websites
- Purdue OWLOnline Writing Lab (OWL) with writing resources and instructional material.
- APA StyleOfficial APA hosted website with information on APA citation and related resources.
- Excelsior College OWLAn alternate source for learning APA style.
Books @ Our Library
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by Call Number: REF BF76.7 .P83 2020Publication Date: 2019
Citation Generators
Scribbr is a popular citation generator for APA-style citation. Remember that with any system-generated citation, you should check against the example for accuracy.
If you're writing your paper in Microsoft Word, you can use the References tab > Insert Citation to add citation informaiton and save it to your document. Word will format the citation and generate in-text citations. See Microsoft's online tutorial for more information.
Database Citation Generators
What is a Database Citation Generator?
Our library search engine can automatically generate citations when you click into the record for a resource. Look for the Quotation symbol with the word Citation under it. Make sure to choose the style of citation from options on the left and to to review the citation before using, as there are often small errors.
