Chapter 7: Citing Sources

Basic APA Citation Practices

If it's not common knowledge, cite it!

In this section, you will learn basic APA in-text and reference citation conventions. For a more detailed APA guide, visit The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). The Purdue OWL hosts an excellent collection of resources on APA style and formatting, including in-text citations, reference citations, and student paper formatting.

In-Text Citation Basics

There is a direct and important relationship between in-text citations and reference citations (the longer citations compiled in an alphabetical list at the end of your paper). In-text citations are shortened versions of reference citations—they refer the curious reader to the References list. In your scholarship, if you use an in-text citation to give credit to something another scholar said, there must also be a corresponding citation in the References list.

 

Image of a paragraph with highlighted in-text citation

Basic Rules for In-text Citations (APA):

  • (Last name, DATE)
  • For one author, list the author’s last name (Cuff, 2022)
  • For two authors, list both last names, separated by “&” (Cuff and Roberts, 2022)
  • For more than two authors, list the first author’s last name with et al. after (Cuff et al., 2022)
Integrating In-Text Citations Into Your Sentences: Direct Quotes

illustration of orange quotation marks in two corners of a square outlined in pink

Narrative Quotation

Last name (year) + signal verb + “quote” (pages).

For example:

Cuff (2002) argues, “there are a variety of strategies to support students in mastering citation practices” (p. 2).


Parenthetical Citation

For example:

She says “there are a variety of strategies to support students in mastering citation practices” (Cuff, 2022, p. 2).

Integrating In-Text Citations Into Your Sentences: Paraphrase

Two open hands reaching towards one another with space in betweenFor a paraphrase, you DO NOT need the page number.

For example:

In “Canada’s New Food Guide: A Fail on Culture and Sustainability,” Sarah Duignan (2019) argues that ______________.

OR

In “Canada’s New Food Guide: A Fail on Culture and Sustainability,” the author argues that ________________ (Duignan, 2019).

 

If you want to review the difference between a direct quote, a paraphrase and a summary, circle back to Chapter 6: When to Direct Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize

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Writing Place Copyright © 2022 by Lindsay Cuff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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