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In-Text Citations
- In-text citations direct your reader to a full reference list entry. The in-text citation appears within the body of the paper and briefly identifies the cited work by its author and date of publication. This enables your reader to locate the corresponding entry in the alphabetical reference list at the end of your paper.
- Both paraphrases and quotations require citations
- APA uses the author-date style of in-text citations, meaning the author's or authors' last name(s) and the year the source was published should appear in the citation
- When directly quoting a source, you must also include the page number(s) you retrieved the quote from
- (Smith, 2007, p. 224) or (Smith, 2007, pp. 224-225)
- If a source does not have a page number, cite which paragraphs the quotation came from
- (Smith, 2007, para. 6) or (Smith, 2007, paras. 6-7)
- When paraphrasing information from a source, you do not need to cite page numbers
- Two authors: List both last names in the citation with an "&" symbol
- (Parkson & Roberts, 2017)
- Three or more authors: List the first author's last name followed by "et al."
- Unknown author: Use the first few words of the title in the citation
- ("Exposure to Bias," 2018)
- NOTE: Titles of books and reports are italicized. Titles of articles, chapters, or webpages are put in quotation marks.
- Unknown Date: If date is unknown, put n.d. in citation
- Organization as Author: Use the organization as you would a normal author
- (American Heart Association, 2017)
