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APA Guide (7th Edition)

Essential Sources (APA 7th Edition)

American Psychological Association (APA) style is a set of guidelines for formatting and citing sources in academic writing.

Below is a list of resources to help you cite your sources in APA style. 

 

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What is APA citation style?

There are two parts to referencing in APA style: the in text citations (citations within the text of your paper) and the reference list at the end of your paper.

In text Citation

An in-text citation is a brief notation next to the text that was changed into your own words (paraphrased) OR text that was copied (quoted). The brief notation is in “author date” style. There are two ways to integrate sources into your paper: paraphrase or quote.

  • Paraphrasing restates the idea of another source in your own words.
  • Quoting is copying a narrow segment of the source, phrasing it exactly as it was originally written.

It is recommended by APA to paraphrase sources rather than directly quoting them because paraphrasing shows you understand what the source wrote and allows you to fit material to the context of your paper and writing style.

In text citations have two formats: narrative and parenthetical.

  • A narrative citation is a type of citation where the author's name is incorporated into the text as part of the sentence and the year follows in parentheses;
  • A parenthetical citation is a type of citation where the author and date are in parentheses at the end of the sentence. 

Paraphrased (in your own words)

  • Dyer (2013) found that bees could recognize human faces (p. 609). <<Narrative Citation
  • Bees can recognize human faces (Dyer, 2013, p. 609). <<Parenthetical Citation

Quoted (copied word for word)

  • According to Dyer (2013) "bees can recognize a target human face" (p. 609). <<Narrative Citation
  • The study concluded, "bees can recognize a target human face" (Dyer, 2013, p. 609). <<Parenthetical Citation

PLEASE NOTE: APA style does not require the page number for paraphrased in text citations, but some instructors require it. ASK YOUR INSTRUCTOR what they prefer. For more information, see page 269 of the Publication Manual.

Reference List

A reference list, that is arranged in alphabetical order, should appear at the end of your paper. Each source you cite in the paper must correspond to only one reference in your reference list; and each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

In general, a reference includes four elements: author, date, title, and source.

Author    Date                              Title                                                                    Source

Dyer, A. (2013). Honeybee vision can recognize images of human faces. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 31(8), 600-609. https://doi.org/10.10167/j.bioexp.29876