CULTURAL 1
Appendix: APA format
Each task you turn in will need to be formatted in proper APA format. This section will provide some information on citing your sources and provide practice for these skills.
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Formatting your paper in APA format
APA format has very specific requirements for margins, spacing, and title information.
Formatting Your Paper
You'll need to format your paper into APA formatting. What we have here is a paper that is not formatted properly. The font is the wrong style and the wrong size, we need to doublespace the text and remove the extra space between paragraphs, we need to indent paragraphs properly and set the margins to the correct width, and in addition, the title page and header is not set. So what we're going to do is walk through formatting this paper into proper APA format.
There are tabs up here that give you access to different menus. You'll find the most important options in the Home tab. The first thing we're going to do to fix this paper is to select all text so that we can change the font and paragraphing. You can highlight all text by going to edit and choosing select all. After you've highlighted everything, you can click on the font selector box in the home tab and choose Times New Roman, which is the required font for APA format. Then you'll want to choose fontsize 12 point, which is the required font size for APA format. Now we have the correct font and font size.
It's also important that we doublespace all lines, so go to the paragraph options, and click the icon that to see more options. From the list, we want to choose line spacing: double for a double spaced document.
Word processing software also tends to add extra spaces between paragraphs, but APA format requires just the standard doublespace between paragraphs, so you'll need to override this setting as well. In the paragraph settings make sure that the "before" and "after" boxes say zero in the spacing region. That will ensure that we have no extra spaces between paragraphs.
While we're using this paragraph dialogue, remember that the first line of each paragraph should be indented halfaninch. You can do this manually by pressing the tab key, but it's easier to tell your word processing software to indent the first line of each paragraph automatically by going to the paragraph settings, locating the indentation settings, and then choosing "First line." Be sure to hit okay, and you'll see now that all paragraphs are indented properly, with the first line pushed in halfaninch and the rest of the lines in the paragraph flush to the left margin.
There's one exception to this indentation rule in APA format. When you create a block quotation, also called a block quote, a quotation of forty words or more, the whole quotation should be indented halfaninch, and the first line should not be indented. It should be flush left with the rest of the quotation. In order to properly indent your block quote, you should click on the second line of the quotation, and the entire paragraph will indent away from the left margin. As you finish off the block quotation by writing a conclusion statement for that paragraph, you'll use the backspace button on the first line that follows the block quote to ensure that the sentence that follows the block quote is flush left. Remember that you should use block quotes sparingly and that they should almost always be followed with a conclusion sentence to tell your reader why the information in the block quotation was important.
And now we notice that there's a lot of space in the margins, so to set the margins to the correct size, we go to "layout" and change the margins from 1.25, which is generally the default for word processing software to 1 inch in on all sides: top, bottom, left, and right. Oneinch margins are required for APA format. So you'll find that there are some preset options here: look for the one with oneinch margins on each side. You can click on the view tab and check the ruler option to see a ruler along the top of your page to make sure that your margins are one inch on all sides. Remember that your document's dimensions should be set to 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches tall.
Now we need to start thinking about our headers. And you'll want to start on the second page. In APA format, the first page header and the second page header differ slightly, and Word will delete your first page header if you do the first page first, so let's start on the second page. So on the second page, double click in the header region to open up the header editing options. You'll see that the header area becomes active for editing. Click on the top left and then type in the title of your paper. Remember to use all capital letters for this header. Then you're going to need to insert a page number. Tab over a few times so that the page number will be on the same line as your title, and then you're going to use the option in word that will insert the page number automatically on each page. Click on page number, then insert it at the current position. Then choose plain number (rather than Roman numeral or anything else). You'll see the page number was inserted as page two. You also want to make sure that "different first page" is checked. APA formatting requires a different first page header, so be sure that box is checked.
Now we want to click on the first page header. The first page header starts with the words "Running head." Only the R is capitalized in running head. And then the title of your paper should be in all capital letters. Then you use the same technique. You tab over, insert page numbers, and use current position and plain number. And then when you doubleclick outside of the header, your header will be set. Let's just review to make sure that the first page and second page header still differ, with only the first page having the "Running head" designation.
So now we need to make the title page. You'll see the student wrote her name at the top of this page, but actually that goes in the title page area in APA format. We can leave the title of the paper in headlinestyle capitalization where it isheadlinestyle capitalization has first words and the other important words capitalized. We'll type the writer's name underneath and the university affiliation underneath that, and you can use the centering icon to make sure the information is centered. So insert the cursor right before the title of your paper and press enter until the title is about a half to a third of the way down the page. Then, to move the body of your paper to the second page, insert the cursor right before the first word of the body of your paper and hit return until that content is moved down to the second page.
Then you just need to do one more thing, which is insert your title again, so the second page will show your title twice. On the first line before the body of your paper, type your title in using headlinestyle capitalization. And then let's center this title by highlighting the text and then pressing the center icon.
To review your formatting, you may want to click the View tab and shrink the view down so you can see more of the paper at a time. You'll see we now have a title page with appropriate header and title information, and each other page has the proper header information. In addition, all margins' and paragraphs' spacings are set correctly, including the margin for block quotations. Another tutorial will help you format your references page, which is essential for any APA formatted submission.
Other Software Versions
A downloadable guide for Word for Mac is available within the course.
Formatting your references list and annotated bibliography in APA format
Reference lists employ a hanging indent. This means that the first line of a referencelist entry starts at the left margin, but subsequent lines of that same entry are indented just as far as the first line of a paragraph would be (often a half inch). Word processors make hanging indents easy, so don't be tempted to format each line manually by using the return key and the tab button.
Reference list
Formatting Your References List
You'll need a references page that's formatted in APA format, which uses the hanging indent style for each citation entry. If you've already been working in APA format, and you've been tracking your references, you should have a references page that has the running head title in all capital letters and the page number, which will be automatically generated. If you're not sure whether your margin and spacing settings are correct, you'll need to view the tutorial for general APA format.
For the references page, you'll need to change the indentation style to hanging indent. To switch from the regular indent style to hanging indent style, you'll need to highlight only your reference entries. Be careful not to select writing in the body of the paper, which needs a regular first line indent. Then you'll need to find the paragraphing tools. If you click on the icon to the lower right, you'll see that more paragraphing tools will appear in the options menu. Then under Indentation, look for "special" and choose hanging. Then click OK.
Then you'll see that you've created the hanging indent formatting, which indents all lines but the first of each entry.
To finish your references page, be sure to type references at the top of the page and center it using the center icon.
Before you turn any references page in, make sure that the entries are listed alphabetically.
Annotated bibliography
Formatting Your Annotated Bibliography
Now let's look at how to create an annotated bibliography from your references page. An annotated bibliography is a tool that helps you prepare for your research by listing each reference citation and including some text that summarizes and evaluates that source below that citation. This is what a finished annotated bibliography entry should look like. But let's start from the beginning.
First, you will need a reference page formatted in APA format. Your reference citations should already be in a hanging indented paragraph style. If you're not sure how to do this, you may want to review the reference page APA format tutorial.
When you create an annotation below a citation, you will just need to insert your cursor at the end of the citation you are annotating and hit enter to create a new paragraph. You can then begin typing your annotation there. I have sample content on my computer clipboard, so I'm going to paste it in so that we can format it.
You'll see that when I pasted it in, it took on the hanging indent paragraph property, so we need to fix that. Your annotation for each entry should generally be a paragraph, and that paragraph should be aligned along the left sideall lines of the paragraph should be indented the same amount. So you need to insert your cursor before the first line in the annotation and then press tab once to indent the first line of the annotation paragraph so that it is flush with the rest of the paragraph. Then, to move the whole paragraph in one more tab stopjust like a block quoteyou should insert the cursor next to the second line and press tab. The entire paragraph should move to the right halfaninch, and you've just formatted your first annotated bibliography entry.
Each cited work should have its own annotation right under it. And remember that, just like your references page, the annotated bibliography should be arranged in alphabetical order.
General principles: Authors' names
Every source will have an author, whether that author is an individual, several individuals, a corporation, an editor as well, or whether the author is unknown. As you write your reference list, you'll need to know how to deal with author names. The patterns below show you how to cite most of the author situations you will encounter.
A book with one author has a very basic format in APA style:
The author's last name is followed by a comma and then her first and middle initials. If she did not include her middle initial when she published the source you are using, simply "R." would suffice.
There is always a space between multiple initials, whether there are two or three (or more) in a row:
Authors with hyphenated first names are treated in a special way: keep the hyphen, but also use periods after each initial:
The author's first name is JeanMarie, and his initials become "J. M."
Kanter, R. M. (1989). When giants learn to dance. New York, NY: Simon &
Schuster.
Kessy, S. S. A. (2006). The contribution of microfinance institutions to poverty
reduction in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Mkuki na Nyota.
Dru, J. M. (1996). Disruption: Overturning conventions and shaking up the
marketplace. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
A suffix such as "Jr." and "II" is included after the last name and a comma:
The general pattern for citing authors will change depending on the number of authors of the source you are citing.
When a book has two authors, you need a comma after the first author's first initial.
Notice, as well, that you use an ampersand (&) rather than the word and in your reference page citations. You will use the ampersand as well in your parenthetical citations in the body of your paper. However, if you refer to a group of authors in the running text of your paper, you will use the word and instead of the ampersand.
Most sources with more than two authors are treated much as are ones with only two—the list of names is just longer:
A book with seven authors follows the same pattern:
Don't forget the comma before the ampersand.
Hirsch, E. D., Jr. (2006). The knowledge deficit: Closing the shocking
education gap for American children. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (1999). Designing qualitative research (3rd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gaglani, S., De Obaldia, M. E., Kominers, S. D., Li, D., & Suh, C. Y. (2011).
Success with science: The winners' guide to high school research.
Tucson, AZ: Research Corporation for Science Advancement.
Aminzade, R. R., Goldstone, J. A., McAdam, D., Perry, E. J., Sewell, W. H.,
Tarrow, S., & Tilley, C. (2001). Silence and voice in the study of
contentious politics. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
When a source is written by eight or more authors, APA instructs you to list only seven of those names: the first six and the last one (in the following case, the ninth). So the two extra names have been replaced by an ellipsis here:
Don't forget the comma before the ellipsis.
Sometimes sources have editors. Whether you're using a source written by an author other than the editor, or whether you're using an article or chapter written by the editor, you will need to list the editor in your citation.
Sources that list only editors. If a source only lists editors instead of authors, you will need to note the editor's name.
Note that a period appears inside the parentheses after "Eds" in addition to the one that appears right after the last parenthesis.
Source with an editor in addition to an author. If you are using an article or chapter from an edited volume, you'll need to list the author and the editor.
Aretz is the author's last name, while Fraginals is the editor's last name. The editor's name is preceded by In. Significantly, when the editor's name is preceded by "In," the editor's last name and first initial are not reversed.
Curry, C., Browning, J. C., Burlage, D. D., Patch, P., Del Pozzo, T., Thrasher,
S., . . . Hayden, C. (2000). Deep in our hearts: Nine White women in the
Freedom Movement. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
BernKlug, M. (Ed.). (2010). Transformative palliative care in nursing homes:
The social work role. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Carr, E., Layzell, M., & Christensen, M. (Eds.). (2010). Advancing nursing
practice in pain management. Ames, IA: Blackwell.
Aretz, I. (1984). Music and dance in continental Latin America, with the
exception of Brazil. In M. Fraginals (Ed.), Africa in Latin America (L.
Blum, Trans.) (pp. 189–226). New York, NY: Holmes & Meier
Publishers, Inc. (Original work published in 1977)
Source by an author in a larger source he or she also edited. If you are using an article or chapter that the editor wrote from a volume that he or she also edited, you'll still need to list the author and the editor.
Fraginals is cited in both the author and editor position in the citation.
Source with organizational author. Some books aren't written by individuals but by organizations.
You do not need to invert any elements of the name in these cases, and they are alphabetized according to first major word in the name.
Source with governmental author. Sources written by governmental organizations are treated similarly.
Fraginals, M. (1984). Cultural contributions and deculturation. In M. Fraginals
(Ed.), Africa in Latin America (L. Blum, Trans.) (pp. 189–226). New
York, NY: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc. (Original work published in
1977)
Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century. (2007).
Rising above the gathering storm: Energizing and employing America
for a brighter economic future. Washington, DC: National Academies
Press.
Centers for Disease Control. (2009). Recommended immunization schedule for
persons aged 0 through 6 years. Retrieved from
http://cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/schedules/downloads/child/2009/09_0
6yrs_schedule_pr.pdf
Source with corporate author. Sources written by corporate authors follow the same pattern for citing the author.
Source with no named author and not an organization either. Sometimes sources, such as articles in newspapers, have no named author. In such a case, simply begin the referencelist entry with the title of the article, and alphabetize according to the title:
Carefully consider the credibility of a source without an author. However in other cases, the organization might be considered the author of the source, and then you can simply use the organization's name as the author.
Editorial with no named author. One of the most timehonored sections of the newspaper is the editorial page. Opinion pieces usually have identified authors; editorials, on the other hand, are often unsigned. An unusual format results:
Website with no named author. If you cannot find the author's name and you still want to use the source, you can leave out an author's name and alphabetize by the title of the source.
If you can't find an author's name or institutional author's name anywhere, chances are, you should move on and find more authoritative information.
Toyota USA Newsroom. (2010, March 15). Toyota offers preliminary findings
from technical field examination of alleged "Runaway Prius" in San
Diego. Retrieved from http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota/toyota
offerspreliminaryfindings155268.aspx
Venue's loss brings back many memories. (2009, June 20). The Atlanta
JournalConstitution, p. 8A.
Editorial: The NLRB vs. Boeing. [Editorial]. (2011, June 15). The Los Angeles
Times.
How to enjoy hummingbirds. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2010, from
http://howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com/
General principles: Titles
The formatting of titles will depend on the type of source you are citing and whether it is in the reference list or in running text. The type and location of the title will determine whether you use headlinestyle capitalization or sentencestyle capitalization and whether or not you set the title in italics.
Periodical titles such as those of journals, newspapers, and magazines in your reference list should be set in headlinestyle capitalization and they should be italicized.
Each noun, adjective, and verb is capitalized. Articles ("a, " "an," "the") and conjunctions ("and," "but," "or," etc.) are not capitalized; neither are short prepositions, such as "in" and "of." But every word of four letters or longer has an initial capital.
Titles for books and websites need to be set in sentencestyle capitalization and italicized in your reference list. This method capitalizes only the initial letters of first words and proper nouns and adjectives. The first word of every title will have an initial capital. Every word that is proper or derived from a proper word will be capitalized: "English," "Montana," and "Buddhism," for example. If you don't know whether a word is proper, look it up in a reputable dictionary. Here is an example of a book title set sentence style:
Notice that the first word that comes after a colon will be capitalized in sentencestyle capitalization.
Titles for items such as articles, chapters, or other smaller parts of larger works should also be set in sentencestyle capitalization in your reference list. However, unlike book or periodical titles, titles of these shorter works should not be italicized.
In the example above, both the chapter title and book title are set in sentencestyle capitalization, but only the book title is italicized.
General principles: Sources in running text. In running text—text in the body of your paper—you should use headlinestyle capitalization (also called title case capitalization) whenever you mention a source: an article, chapter, website, journal, or book. This allows the reader to clearly differentiate between the titles of sources and what you are saying about those sources.
In running text, you should place quotation marks around the titles of articles, chapters, or individual website articles (as opposed to the title of the website as a whole, which you would treat similarly to a book).
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
Talking about leaving: Why undergraduates leave the sciences.
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for social exchange.
In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind (pp.
163–228). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Compare the way this source is handled in running text and in its accompanying reference page.
In running text, you should not use quotation marks, but instead use italics for book, journal, or other periodical titles.
Helpful hint:
In general, any title that you would italicize in your reference list should also be italicized in running text, and it should be presented in headlinestyle capitalization.
Any title that you would set roman (not in italics) in your reference list will most likely need to be placed within quotation marks if it appears in running text (the body of your paper). It should also be capitalized headline style.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web page "Some
Common Misconceptions about Vaccination and How to Respond to Them"
offers a good overview of why parents are hesitant to give their children
vaccines.
Reference
Centers for Disease Control. (2007). Some common misconceptions about
vaccination and how to respond to them. Retrieved from
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vacgen/6mishome.htm
Despite the reluctance of some parents, 90 percent of children in the
United States do receive vaccines at the age for which they are prescribed,
reports The New York Times ("Public Health Risk").
Reference
Steinhauer, J. (2008, March 21). Public health risk seen as parents reject
vaccines. The New York Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/21vaccine.html
State/Possession Abbreviation
ALABAMA AL
ALASKA AK
AMERICAN SAMOA AS
ARIZONA AZ
ARKANSAS AR
CALIFORNIA CA
COLORADO CO
CONNECTICUT CT
DELAWARE DE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DC
FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA FM
FLORIDA FL
GEORGIA GA
GUAM GU
HAWAII HI
IDAHO ID
ILLINOIS IL
INDIANA IN
State/Possession Abbreviation
MONTANA MT
NEBRASKA NE
NEVADA NV
NEW HAMPSHIRE NH
NEW JERSEY NJ
NEW MEXICO NM
NEW YORK NY
NORTH CAROLINA NC
NORTH DAKOTA ND
NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS
MP
OHIO OH
OKLAHOMA OK
OREGON OR
PALAU PW
PENNSYLVANIA PA
PUERTO RICO PR
RHODE ISLAND RI
General principles: Location information
When citing books, you will need to direct your reader to where they can find the source, by providing either geographical information or online retrieval information.
Reference citations for journal articles or other periodicals do not need information about where it was published. Books available only online should have a retrieval URL
instead of the publisher location.
For print sources, you will need to provide information about the publisher. Usually, this information includes the publisher name and the primary physical location, and it is usually found on one of the first two pages of a book, pamphlet, or any source created by a publishing company.
Location information should include city and state.
States and Their Abbreviations
Galante, G. A. (2004). Caring for patients from different cultures.
Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
IOWA IA
KANSAS KS
KENTUCKY KY
LOUISIANA LA
MAINE ME
MARSHALL ISLANDS MH
MARYLAND MD
MASSACHUSETTS MA
MICHIGAN MI
MINNESOTA MN
MISSISSIPPI MS
MISSOURI MO
SOUTH CAROLINA SC
SOUTH DAKOTA SD
TENNESSEE TN
TEXAS TX
UTAH UT
VERMONT VT
VIRGIN ISLANDS VI
VIRGINIA VA
WASHINGTON WA
WEST VIRGINIA WV
WISCONSIN WI
WYOMING WY
You do always need to include the city, regardless of whether it is included in the publisher's name:
Note that the country is given when the book was not published in the United States.
Usually books, articles, and other resources you found through a library database will have a DOI number assigned. DOI stands for digital object identifier, and the number uniquely identifies that document. If a resource is only available online, use the DOI number, if one is assigned.
Here is an example of how you might find the DOI in the database entry for a journal article with a DOI number assigned.
Boschma, G. (2003). The rise of mental health nursing: A history of psychiatric
care in Dutch asylums, 1890–1920. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press.
Kessy, S. S. A. (2006). The contribution of microfinance institutions to poverty
reduction in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Mkuki na Nyota.
Below, you can see the corresponding referencepage citation.
Here is an example of a book with a DOI number assigned.
Never add a period after a URL or digital object identifier (DOI) because that can confuse anyone trying to find your source. Also, no period intervenes between the colon after "doi" and the DOI itself.
Depending on the database, you may also see the number listed as an accession number. ERIC, a popular database that hosts research in the field of education that has been published by journals or that is selfpublished, uses accession numbers instead of DOI numbers. APA has a special format for articles from ERIC:
Online sources without a DOI number assigned. If a book is only available online, and it does not have a DOI number assigned, use the retrieval URL instead of the publisher location.
When you cite a website, your reference citation will be different depending on whether you are citing the entire website or just a page from the website.
Kyriacou, A. P. (2010). Intrinsic motivation and the logic of collective action:
The impact of selective incentives. American Journal of Economics &
Sociology, 69, 823–839. doi:10.1111/j.15367150.2020.00722.x
Borbye, L. (2011). Sustainable innovation: A guide to harvesting the untapped
riches of opposition, unlikely combinations, and a Plan B.
doi:10.2200/S00359ED1V01Y201105TME003
Savich, C. (2008). Inclusion: The pros and cons—a critical review. Retrieved
from ERIC database. (ED501775)
Golley, J., & Song, L. (Eds.). (2011). Rising China: Global challenges and
opportunities. Retrieved from
http://epress.anu.edu.au/china_update2011/pdf/whole.pdf
United States Environmental Protection Agency (2011). Retrieved from
http://www.epa.gov/
Above, the organizational author is the same name as the website, so it's unnecessary to cite the name of the website.
Below, a specific page is cited, so the page title is placed in italics. Notice that the page title is not capitalized.
Special online formats. The citation format for digital editions on proprietary platforms are changing. Note that the pagination of different versions (print, PDF, HTML, Kindle) of texts will most likely use different pagination, so you should always cite the exact version that you are using.
For ease of citing quotations, for which you will need to provide a page number, it is suggested that you use a paginated version of the text if possible.
General principles: Dates
When citing a work, cite as much of the publication date as you can. If you are citing an edition or revision other than the first, you will need to indicate that as well.
Books should generally have the year of publication listed.
Periodical articles will usually have a year, and may even have a month or day listed.
United States Environmental Protection Agency (2011). Current drinking
water regulations. Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/
Plant, R. (2008). An executive's guide to information technology: Principles,
business models, and terminology [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from
Amazon.com
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for social exchange.
In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind (pp.
163–228). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Facing up to China. (2010, February 6). The Economist, 11. Retrieved from
http://www.economist.com
Some periodicals will list a season rather than a month.
Many older books have new publications or editions. That information must be noted as well.
Notice in the citation below that the page numbers are separated from the edition number with a comma.
Web resources will often have a publication date listed, and they may also list a revision date.
In the example above, the revision date was used because the source was updated with more information at that point.
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association used to call for a retrieval date— the date upon which you viewed the source online—but it no longer requires a retrieval date for citations unless the source is very likely to change. Changeable sources, it says, include wikis, but you are not allowed to use wikis or other such changeable sources as credible sources for your research paper. So it is likely that you will not need to include retrieval dates, only publication and perhaps revision dates.
Giroux, H. A. (2003, Winter). Politics, war, and the disappearance of children.
JAC, 23(1). Retrieved from http://www.jacweb.org
Darwin, C. (1998). The origin of species. Ware, England: Wordsworth Editions
Limited. (Original work published 1869)
Offit, P. A., & Bell, L. M. (2009). Vaccines: What you should know (3rd ed.).
Hoboken, NJ: J.W. Wiley & Sons.
Cohen, M. Z. (2006). Nursing assessment. In J. Fitzpatrick & M. Wallace
(Eds.), Encyclopedia of nursing research (2nd ed., pp. 387–389). New
York, NY: Springer.
Internal Revenue Service. (2010, June 21). Tax law changes related to national
disaster relief. Retrieved from
http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=203056,00.html
General principles: Sources with missing information
Sometimes sources we use lack a discernible publication date; others have no signed authorship. The first thing to do is only natural in our connected age: search for the information online. Perhaps someone else has cited the paper and actually found the publication date; maybe the online version of the article includes the author's name. Whatever you find through online searching, be sure to do the further work of corroborating the evidence: you don't want to replicate errors that others made.
No Publication Date. If a source has no clear publication date, then replace the year with "n.d.":
No named author on a website. If you cannot find the author's name and you still want to use the source, you can leave out an author's name and alphabetize by the title of the source.
Unsigned newspaper article. Sometimes articles in newspapers do not list authors. In such a case, simply begin the referencelist entry with the title of the article, and alphabetize according to the title:
General principles: Alphabetization
Referencelist entries are organized alphabetically and then chronologically. First, arrange your entries by last name of the first author:
Ofstead, C. (n.d.). The census reports Wisconsin is changing. Madison, WI:
Department of Health and Family Services.
How to enjoy hummingbirds. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2010, from
http://howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com/
Venue's loss brings back many memories. (2009, June 20). The Atlanta
JournalConstitution, p. 8A.
Johnson, A. (2007). Unintended consequences: How science professors
discourage women of color. Science Education, 91(5), 805–821.
Mahoney, T. A. (1979). Compensation and reward perspectives. Homewood,
IL: Richard D. Irwin.
If two authors share a last name, then alphabetize by first initials. If a first author is identical to that of another entry, look at the next element in the list—a second author or a year—and organize according to that element—remember that numbers come before letters alphabetically. If that element is the same, go on to the next element, often a title, and organize by that element—always alphabetically and chronologically.
Oftentimes, reference lists include multiple entries by the same author. When one author (or exact set of authors, presented in the same order) has written more than one entry, organize by year, with oldest publication listed first:
When an author or set of authors published multiple times in the same year, add lowercase letters after the year to differentiate them.
Au, K. (1980). Participation structures in a reading lesson with Hawaiian
children. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 11, 91–115.
Au, K., & Jordan, C. (1981). Teaching reading to Hawaiian children: Finding a
culturally appropriate solution. In H. Trueba, P. Guthrie, & K. Au (Eds.),
Culture and the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography
(pp. 139–152). New York, NY: Newbury House.
Mintzberg, H. (1978). Patterns in strategy formation. Management Science, 24,
934–948.
Mintzberg, H. (1987). Crafting strategy. Harvard Business Review, 87(4), 66–
75.
Thelwall, M. (2008a). Extracting accurate and complete results from search
engines: Case study Windows Live. Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, 59, 38–50.
Thelwall, M. (2008b). Quantitative comparisons of search engine results.
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and
Technology, 59(11), 1702–1710.
Luckily, the most common source types have clear patterns for citation.
This is also how you will refer to them when you cite these sources in text:
If two studies have the same primary author but different secondary authors, alphabetize them according to the second author's name, then the third author, and so on:
Always present authors' names in the order in which they appear on the publication itself. Do not alter the order.
Patterns for reference list citations
So far, you've learned details regarding how to present author, title, and publication information to create an APA format reference citation. In this section, you'll find patterns for creating reference list citations specific to the type of resource you're using. Chance are, you'll find a pattern in this section for most of the sources you're using. However, you should refer back to the general information section when information about your source doesn't quite fit a model provided (for instance, if a date is missing). The general rules in the previous section will help you fill in the gaps.
One last thing: You don't need to memorize citation formats. Feel free to look back at the course materials when you need to check your citations.
Thelwall (2008a) found that . . .
Dutton, J. E., & Ashford, S. J. (1993). Selling issues to top management.
Academy of Management Review, 18, 397–428.
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., Lawrence, K. A., & MinerRubino, K. (2002). Red
light, green light: Making sense of the organizational context for issue
selling. Organization Science, 13, 355–369.
Dutton, J. E., Ashford, S. J., O'Neill, R. M., Hayes, E., & Wierba, E. E. (1997).
Reading the wind: How middle managers assess the context for selling
issues to top managers. Strategic Management Journal, 18, 407–425.
Patterns for citing books
Below you will see a basic book citation. It includes the author name, the date of publication, the title, and information to help your reader find either where the print text was published or where it can be found online.
Book with one author
A book with one author has a very basic format in APA style:
Book with an editor instead of an author.
Note that a period appears inside the parentheses after "Ed" in addition to the one that appears right after the last parenthesis. As usual, a period also appears after the year's closing parenthesis.
Chapter in an edited book. The authors Cosmides and Tooby contributed an essay to a collection they also edited. To create the referencelist entry, you must include publication information about the whole book, too:
The chapter and book titles both use sentencestyle capitalization. The abbreviation Eds. has an s at the end to indicate that there is more than one editor. Eds has an initial capital, is followed by a period, and a comma comes after the closing parenthesis to separate the editor information from the name of the book. The numeral range indicates the pages on which Cosmides and Tooby's article appears; pp. simply stands for pages.
The names of the book's editors aren't inverted: first initials come before surnames.
Kanter, R. M. (1989). When giants learn to dance. New York, NY: Simon &
Schuster.
BernKlug, M. (Ed.). (2010). Transformative palliative care in nursing homes:
The social work role. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992). Cognitive adaptations for social exchange.
In J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, & J. Tooby (Eds.), The adapted mind (pp.
163–228). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Book with an organizational or corporate author. Some books aren't written by individuals but by organizations.
You do not need to invert any elements of the name in these cases, and they are alphabetized according to first major word in the name.
Entry in an encyclopedia or other reference work. Citing an entry from an encyclopedia is similar to citing a chapter in an edited work:
The first entry above shows an encyclopedia with a volume number.
Online encyclopedia or dictionary. Many dictionaries and encyclopedias are available online and through your university library:
Alphabetize your entry by the word you looked up. Then include the date, the title of the website, and the retrieval URL.
Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century. (2007).
Rising above the gathering storm: Energizing and employing America
for a brighter economic future. Washington, DC: National Academies
Press.
Korn, M. (2008). Immunization, Active. In Encyclopedia of Public Health
(Vol. 9, pp. 712–716). New York, NY: Springer.
Varma, R., & GalindoSanchez, V. (2006). Native American women in
computing. In E. M. Trauth (Ed.), Encyclopedia of gender and
information technology (pp. 914–919). Hershey, PA: Idea Group.
Inflation. (2011). In MerriamWebster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam
webster.com/dictionary/inflation
Papinian. (2011). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/442142/Papinian
Usually books, articles, and other resources you find through a library database will have a DOI number assigned. If a book is only available online, use the DOI number, if one is assigned.
Never add a period after a URL or digital object identifier (DOI) because that can confuse anyone trying to find your source. Also, no period intervenes between the colon after "doi" and the DOI itself.
If a book is only available online, and it does not have a DOI number assigned, use the retrieval URL instead of the publisher location.
The citation format for digital editions on proprietary platforms are changing. Note that the pagination of different versions (print, PDF, HTML, Kindle) of texts will most likely use different pagination, so you should always cite the exact version that you are using.
For ease of intext citations, for which you will need to provide a page number, it is suggested that you use a paginated version of the text if possible.
Patterns for citing scholarly articles
Like books, scholarly articles follow a basic referencelistentry format that can become complicated as publication details change. The essentials for the scholarlyarticle entry are author's last name and first initial, year, article title, journal name, volume and issue (if available), and page numbers:
Borbye, L. (2011). Sustainable innovation: A guide to harvesting the untapped
riches of opposition, unlikely combinations, and a Plan B.
doi:10.2200/S00359ED1V01Y201105TME003
Golley, J., & Song, L. (Eds.). (2011). Rising China: Global challenges and
opportunities. Retrieved from
http://epress.anu.edu.au/china_update2011/pdf/whole.pdf
Plant, R. (2008). An executive's guide to information technology: Principles,
business models, and terminology [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from
Amazon.com
Cedja, B. D. (1997). An examination of transfer shock in academic disciplines.
Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 21(3), 279–288.
Titles of journal articles are not formatted in any special way (no italics, no quotation marks), and they take sentencestyle capitalization. Journal names, remember, are capitalized headline style. Notice that the journal's volume number is in italics, while the issue number is set roman (no italics) and within parentheses that are also not italicized. There is no space between volume and issue numbers.
If no issue number is available, simply omit that information:
Generally, use Arabic numerals instead of Roman numerals. Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4 . . . ) are always used for journal volumes. Roman numerals are only allowed when part of the title itself (such as "Title IX and Physical Education: A Compliance Overview") or to indicate pages in front matter, such as a preface, which often uses lowercase Roman numerals (pp. ix–xii). APA does not drop digits in ranges of page numbers or years: write "221–228" instead of "221–8."
Journal article with DOI. More recent articles will have been electronically released, and APA suggests that DOIs be included in the referencelist entry for any such source. Here is an example of an article with its DOI:
No period appears after the DOI, nor is there a space after the colon and before the identifier itself.
Article with a URL. If the article does not have a DOI provide the URL for the journal's homepage, whether or not you found it through the journal's home page or a database:
The APA's Publication Manual only suggests that you include database (JSTOR, PsychINFO, EBSCO) information if a source is only available through a database. This is a very rare occurrence. In most cases, you should instead refer to the online home of the publication itself, as modeled in the entry on above.
Milkovich, G. T. (1988). A strategic perspective on compensation management.
Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 6, 263–288.
Gebauer, J., Shaw, M. J., & Gribbins, M. L. (2010). Tasktechnology fit for
mobile information systems. Journal of Information Technology, 25(3),
259–272. doi:10.1057/jit.2010.10
Ong, M. (2001). Playing with in/visibility: How minority women gain power
from the margins of science culture. Women in Higher Education,
10(11), 42–44. Retrieved from http://www.wihe.com
Special issue of a journal. Sometimes journals publish special issues around certain themes. To cite a whole special journal issue, follow this format:
Periodicals other than scholarly journals
Academic journals are periodicals, and so are magazines and newspapers. The format for these other periodicals is very similar to that of journal articles, with some differences.
Magazine article. Scientific American is a monthly magazine, so the date includes both month and year. The full name of the month—not an abbreviation—is given.
Online magazine article. The online counterpart to the magazine article's format is very similar, except it includes a URL or DOI:
Newsweek is a weekly magazine, so the date includes not just month and year but also an exact date.
Newspaper article. Follow the same basic format for hardcopy newspaper articles:
The page numbers listed are the first page of the article and the one onto which it continues. If the article appeared continuously on all pages from 1 to 7, the entry would state "pp. 1–7." If the article only appeared on page one, the entry would indicate simply "p. 1." Note that APA includes the initial article with newspaper titles in reference lists: The New York Times, not New York Times.
Chen, N., & Tsai, C. (2009). Knowledge infrastructure and the future [Special
issue]. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 12(1).
Nadeau, R. (2008, April). The economist has no clothes. Scientific American,
298(4), 42.
Cook, N. (2010, April 4). The death of liberal arts. Newsweek. Retrieved from
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/04/thedeathof
liberalarts.html
Meier, B. (2011, June 26). In medicine, new isn't always improved. The New
York Times, pp. 1, 7.
Online newspaper article. To include in a reference list the online version of the same New York Times article, replace the page numbers with electronicaccess information.
Note that you should use as simple a URL as possible: "http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/health/26innovate.html?pagewanted=1&ref=health" takes one to the same page as "http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/health/26innovate.html". It, therefore, makes sense to drop the unnecessary parts. Often—but not always—material after a question mark in a URL is extraneous. Before using it in a reference list, verify that the shortened URL works.
Unsigned newspaper article. Sometimes articles in newspapers do not list authors. In such a case, simply begin the referencelist entry with the title of the article, and alphabetize according to the title:
Unsigned editorial. One of the most timehonored sections of the newspaper is the editorial page. Opinion pieces usually have identified authors; editorials, on the other hand, are often unsigned. An unusual format results:
Meier, B. (2011, June 26). In medicine, new isn't always improved. The New
York Times. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/health/26innovate.html
Venue's loss brings back many memories. (2009, June 20). The Atlanta
JournalConstitution, p. 8A.
Editorial: The NLRB vs. Boeing. [Editorial]. (2011, June 15). The Los Angeles
Times.
Online government publications, research reports, white papers, and issue briefs
Official reports and organizational publications are often available online, and they are easily cited. Titles are italicized because the documents are standalone and not part of a periodical.
Government publication or research report.
The author names, year, and title are selfexplanatory. The strange sequence of numbers and letters that appears in parentheses after the title is the report number, which is included for utmost clarity. Note that APA uses "U.S."—not "US" or "U. S."—as an adjective. The noun form is always spelled out: for example, "the history of the United States."
Organizational author who is also the publisher. Government reports are often authored by a group instead of by named authors.
In this case, the writer did not access the document online but found it in hard copy at a library. Hence, no URL is given. "Author" after the city means that the Council of Chief State School Officers is also the publisher.
Organizational author, revised edition.
As with the previous source, this research report was published by the organization that authored it. Note that "Rev. ed." always begins with an initial capital letter.
Hoachlander, E. G., Sikora, A. C., Horn, L., & Carroll, C. D. (2003).
Community college students: Goals, academic preparation, and
outcomes (NCES 2003164). Washington, DC: Institute of Education
Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of
Education. Retrieved from http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS126081
Council of Chief State School Officers. (1992). Recommendations for
improving the assessment and monitoring of students with limited
English proficiency. Washington, DC: Author.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2010). Comorbidity: Addiction and other
mental illnesses (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Court Case. Citing a court case requires a special format as well.
The series of numbers and letters after the case indicate where the case was documented. Here, we see U.S.C, which stands for United States Code; though you may also see an F in the same place, would stand for Federal Reporter, another periodical dedicated to documenting resources. The year of the case would follow.
If you are using a court case, chances are you can find the citation for that court case within the document in which you are reading about the case.
Court cases should be italicized in running text.
White paper. A white paper is a problemsolving guide or focused research for public dissemination and can be written by a government, a profit or nonprofit organization, or an individual.
Issue brief. In publicpolicy circles, a short, neutral paper discussing the state of a certain problem or subject is called an "issue brief." They are often named as such and numbered. Treat them in much the same way you would treat a white paper.
New York v. Quarles, 467 U. S. C. 649, 655 (1984).
McAfee Foundstone Professional Services and McAfee Labs. (2011). Global
energy cyberattacks: "Night Dragon." Retrieved from
http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/whitepapers/qpglobalenergy
cyberattacksnightdragon.pdf
Trude, S., & Conwell, L. J. (2004). Rhetoric vs. reality: Employer views on
consumerdriven health care (Issue Brief No. 86). Washington, DC:
Center for Studying Health System Change.
In-text citations: Patterns for in-text citations
The reference list is helpful on its own, but it is only the corresponding intext citations that really connect sources to the content of a paper itself. Intext citations, known collectively as parenthetical documentation, are used within one's research paper to signify that the ideas and information presented have been taken from an outside source, either through paraphrase or quotation. APA has specific rules for mentions of a source in running text. After the first mention of a source in a research paper, APA format shortens the citation for some sources, depending on the number of authors.
For sources with one or two authors, first and subsequent citations of sources are the same.
Intext citations of oneauthor works. Citing a work with one author is the simplest of all intext citation formats:
The citation above consists of the author's last name, a comma, and the year, all contained within a set of parentheses.
You might also include the author's name in the sentence, in which case you would not need to include the author's name in a parenthetical citation. The sentence below exemplifies this method of citing author and year.
If the date is particularly important to your purpose for writing (for example, if you wanted to emphasize how ideas about a topic have changed over time), you might include both the author and the date in the sentence. Then you would not need to cite anything in parentheses for this paraphrase. Remember, though, that if you are quoting, you always need to include a page number in parentheses.
Some alternative methods for tracking scholarship's influence have been
suggested (Aguillo, 2009).
Aguillo (2009) suggested some alternative methods for tracking
scholarship's influence.
In 2009, Aguillo suggested some alternative methods for tracking
scholarship's influence.
Sometimes, you may need to cite a website with an organizational author. In this case, cite the organization, and if you are referring to specific page, cite the title of the page. If you can find a year of publication, you'll need to cite that as well.
The quotation above is taken from a specific page, so the title of that page is cited. The paraphrase below refers to the website in general, so it does not include the page header information.
Notice that the year cited above is the year the site was updated. Usually, this information can be found at the bottom or top of the page. In this case, the website said "Last updated September 06, 2011," so that information was used in the citation.
Intext citations of works by authors with the same last name. When sources are written by authors with the same last name—even if the years of publication differ—include one or two initials to distinguish them:
"Besides prescribing these legal limits, EPA rules set watertesting
schedules and methods that water systems must follow" (United States
Environmental Protection Agency, 2011, "Current Drinking Water
Regulations").
The United States Environmental Protection Agency's website is updated
regularly with information on current regulations and regulations under
development (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2011).
(Smith, A., 2005)
(Smith, F. W., 2010)
A. Smith (2005) and F. W. Smith (2010) independently studied . . .
Intext citations of works with two authors. When two authors have written a source, mention both names in either running text or parenthetical citations:
Subsequent citations of twoauthor sources do not differ from the format for first citations.
For sources with three, four, or five authors, first and subsequent citations of sources differ.
Intext citations of works with three, four, or five authors. When citing a work that has three, four, or five authors, all of those authors must be mentioned in the first citation. They can be mentioned either within parentheses or in running text:
In both of these examples, all authors are named, and the year of the study is presented.
Just as with twoauthor sources, the names are joined by the word "and" in running text but with the ampersand (&) when within parentheses. The ampersand is preceded by a comma when in a list of three or more names; this is in accordance with the grammatical rules governing the serial comma.
Citations of works of three, four, or five authors after the first mention. Once a paper has mentioned a study with more than two authors once, subsequent citations of that study need only include the last name of the first author. Then the Latin phrase "et al."—meaning "and others"—should appear. So, if a study by Levy, Chiu, and Hong (2006) has already been cited once, the subsequent citations of that study appear as follows:
A recent study dissected the architecture of Google (Brin & Page, 1998).
Brin and Page (1998) wrote that Google manages hypertext more
efficiently than other search engines.
Mediators turn out to have serious effect on independent and independent
variables (MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, & Sheets, 2002).
Research by MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, and Sheets (2002)
found that the other approach is much less effective than previously thought.
Levy et al. (2006) traced the development of research on intergroup
relations.
Never use "et al." when a source has only two authors: you must use both names in those cases. After citing the article by Brin and Page (1998), once you would still need to choose one of the following citation formats.
In some cases, two different studies will reduce down to the same "et al." citation. For example, (Hurtado, Eagan, Cabrera, Lin, Park, & Lopez, 2007) and (Hurtado, Han, Sáenz, Espinosa, Cabrera, & Cerna, 2007) would both shorten to (Hurtado et al., 2007)
To avoid that confusion, you need to include enough names to remove ambiguity. So, in a paper citing both of the above studies, you would never use the citation (Hurtado et al., 2007).
Instead, (Hurtado, Eagan, Cabrera, Lin, Park, & Lopez, 2007) would shorten to (Hurtado, Eagan, et al., 2007)
(Hurtado, Han, Sáenz, Espinosa, Cabrera, & Cerna, 2007) would shorten to (Hurtado, Han, et al., 2007)
This way, there is no confusion as to which source is meant. Note that "et al." is preceded by a comma when there are at least three authors. This is also in accordance with the serialcomma rule.
Remember, if there are two studies with exactly the same set of multiple authors in the exact same order, those studies will already be assigned small letters to distinguish them in the reference list. Take, for instance this twopart study:
Intext citations of these two articles, which have identical sets of authors, would be (Li et al., 2005a) and (Li et al., 2005b).
The citation for six or more authors will be abbreviated on the first mention and all subsequent ones.
A recent study dissected the architecture of Google (Brin & Page, 1998).
Brin and Page (1998) wrote that Google manages hypertext more
efficiently than other search engines.
Li, X., Thelwall, M., Wilkinson, D., & Musgrove, P. B. (2005a). National and
international university departmental web site interlinking: Part 1;
Validation of departmental link analysis. Scientometrics, 64(2), 151–185.
Li, X., Thelwall, M., Wilkinson, D., & Musgrove, P. B. (2005b). National and
international university departmental web site interlinking: Part 2; Link
patterns. Scientometrics, 64(2), 187–208.
Intext citations of works with six or more authors. For works that have six or more authors, all authors will never be listed in running text or in a parenthetical citation. Instead, include just the first author's last name, followed by "et al."
A work written by the eight authors Karin N. Sandmel, Mary Brindle, Karen R. Harris, Kathleen Lynne Lane, Steve Graham, Jessica Nackel, Rachel Mathias, Annette Little should be cited in either of the following two ways, even on the first mention:
More than one work within one set of parentheses. It is possible to cite more than one work at a time. Follow the rules above as they pertain to the specific sources that you are citing, and then present the list of sources, alphabetically and separated by semicolons:
Always list the sources alphabetically, according to their arrangement in the reference list.
Sources with the author not named. Remember that the principle underlying intext citations is that they facilitate the easy location of full references. So when a source does not have an author, the intext citation should reflect the composition of the referencelist entry, which will then usually begin with the title:
The intext citation for that source would refer to the title, but a shortened version of it:
The factbook above is a standalone title, so it is italicized. The title also involves a proper noun (the University of Arizona), so the proper noun phrase must be capitalized.
Sandmel et al. (2009) argue that the positive behavioral support method
is most successful when it's implemented on a school wide basis.
The positive behavioral support method is most successful when it's
implemented on a school wide basis (Sandmel et al., 2001).
Many studies have confirmed this (Brin & Page, 1998; Garfield, 2005;
Kousha & Thelwall, 2006; Merton, 1973; Uyar, 2009a).
The University of Arizona fact book 2001–2002. (2001). Tucson, AZ:
University of Arizona.
More students study social and behavioral sciences than business and
public administration (University of Arizona, 2001).
Quotations, paraphrases, summary, and common knowledge
Intext citations are needed when you quote or paraphrase source material, and you will need to format quotations, block quotations, and paraphrases differently.
Quotations
If the name of the author is not mentioned in the sentence, the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number on which the quotation can be found will be placed after the closing quotation mark and before the closing punctuation of the sentence.
Note that a comma separates the name from the year and the year from the page number or page range. This is the general pattern that you will use for almost all intext citations.
If the author is mentioned in the sentence, the year of publication follows the author name, and the page number comes after the closing quotation mark.
If multiple pages were cited, use "pp." and list the page range.
If a source has neither page numbers nor visible paragraph numbers, just include the author and the year of publication. This is a common pattern for web sources.
One study found that "developing social networks on campus
counteracted isolation and invisibility" (Reyes, 2011, p. 257).
According to Reyes (2011), "developing social networks on campus
counteracted isolation and invisibility" (p. 257).
According to Beheiry, Chong, and Hass (2006), "Corporations that are
more aware of the three pillars of sustainability and more vocal about them
tend to incorporate that consciousness into their large and megaproject
planning." (pp. 390–391).
For instance, the article begins with this advice to health care providers: "A
provider has a responsibility to listen to and to try to understand a patient's or
parent's concerns, fears, and beliefs about vaccination and to take them into
consideration when offering vaccines" (CDC, 2007).
Block quotations
Block quotations should be used to include direct quotations of 40 or more words within your research paper. Because they can make your writing seem choppy or disjoined, block quotations should be used sparingly or not at all.
Paraphrases
You do not need to give page or paragraph information when you simply paraphrase material. If you paraphrased Reyes instead of quoting her, you would leave out the page number:
An ampersand is used in parenthetical citations, while the word and is used in running text. You'll recall that ampersands are also used in referencelist entries because those are also not running text.
Beheiry, Chong, and Hass (2006) report that, as a result of the low
response rate, the study's findings were not as conclusive as they had hoped: Due to the low number of data points in this research, it would be
meaningless to analyze exact relationships between the factors. Thus,
the analysis is only aimed at providing a framework for examining
relationships so that future research can more specifically improve on
the current research findings. Thus, despite the small sample size, all
the common statistical analysis steps were followed. (p. 389)
Despite all of these caveats, the authors do suggest that a relationship does
appear to exist—that companies that scored higher on the CSCI, indicating
stronger commitment to a balanced understanding of sustainability at the
executive level, tended to perform more closely to expectations for project
schedule and cost (Beheiry et al., 2006).
Students may feel unconnected and inconsequential on campus; social
networks alleviate such feelings (Reyes, 2011).
Research on decision making has recently taken a turn toward new
models (Gonzalez & Dutt, 2010).
Gonzalez and Dutt's (2010) research on decision making is part of a turn
toward new models.
As with quoted material, when the author's name (or authors' names, as in the example above) are included in the sentence leading up to the intext citation, only the year needs to be provided.
The year can be incorporated into the running text, too, if desired:
In that case, no parenthetical citation is needed at all for paraphrased material because the key material —author and year—is contained within the sentence itself. A reader curious about the publication details relating to that source would need no further information to find the corresponding referencelist entry, which in turn provides the keys for locating Gonzalez and Dutt's actual publication.
Indirect quotations. A paraphrase is sometimes called an indirect quotation. You can recognize indirect quotations because they usually have the word that in the introductory phrase, as in the example below.
Indirect quotations are not placed in quotation marks because they are not the original words of the source author. Because quotation marks aren't necessary, you should not put a comma between that and the phrase that explains what the author wrote.
However, because you are paraphrasing ideas that aren't your own, you do need to cite the source's author and publication date.
Summaries
To summarize, you use the same skills as when you paraphrase except you summarize the main idea of the original work instead of the main idea of a few sentences. Summaries can vary in length, and the length of the summary will determine the level of detail that your summary should provide.
You don't need quotation marks in your summary because you will not be quoting directly from the author. However, you do need to create an intext citation after every distinct idea in your summary so that your reader can tell when you are summarizing an author's ideas and when you are presenting your own or those of a different author.
In 2010, Gonzalez and Dutt's research constituted a turn toward new
models.
The authors' review of research suggests that in every industry,
companies need to focus on their image in order to stay competitive (Beheiry,
Chong, & Hass, 2006).
Common knowledge
There is one exception to the "cite everything" principle: information that is common knowledge does not need to be cited. But very little of what you write in your research paper will be common knowledge. If you were to write your research paper with mostly common knowledge, you'd have little reason to write your paper. Common knowledge is knowledge that is incontestable—or fact. A few examples of common knowledge are listed below:
Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. Christopher Columbus first landed in the Americas in 1492. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made the segregation of schools illegal. e. e. cummings was a poet. Human gestation averages nine months.
As you can see, your research paper would not be very interesting if it only included facts of common knowledge, but you can rely on uncontroversial facts such as these when using your sources to support your arguments. You don't need to cite common knowledge, but some knowledge that seems uncontroversial is not as clearcut as it seems. For instance, in the recent decades, Pluto has gained and lost its status as a planet, and the arguments that surround this debate are compelling. Cite your sources if you are at all uncertain about the extent to which your assertion is accepted by a general audience as an uncontested fact.
Best practices for quoting or paraphrasing
There are some rules you can follow to make sure that you integrate sources into your writing in a way that helps your audience understand how each source supports your point.
Citing often. Every sentence in a paper need not have a citation. It is only necessary to cite often enough to make clear beyond doubt where information is coming from. If the first sentence of a paragraph cites Gonzalez and Dutt, you wouldn't need to cite the very next sentence; citations should be placed regularly throughout paragraphs, however. In addition, you would need a citation near the end of the paragraph and at the beginning of the next paragraph.
Even if the Gonzalez and Dutt are mentioned by name later in that paragraph, the year does not need to be included because the source is already clear.
If, however, another source is cited between two references to Gonzalez and Dunn, both Gonzalez and Dunn mentions need to include the year, whether in parenthetical citations or blended into the text.
In that example, the Clark study intervenes between the two mentions of Gonzalez and Dunn's work, so the reader needs to be reminded which Gonzalez and Dunn study is meant.
Gonzalez and Dutt's (2010) research on decision making is part of a turn
toward new models. In that research, they found that old models are insufficient
for real progress in the field. It was also made clear that . . .
Gonzalez and Dutt's (2010) research on decision making is part of a turn
toward new models. Clark (2009), however, takes a different tack. Gonzalez
and Dutt (2010) argue that . . .
APA format requires four parts to a citation: 1) an introductory phrase, 2) the paraphrase or quotation used as evidence, 3) an intext citation, and 4) a reference page citation.
In the examples below, the introduction is yellow, the paraphrase or quotation used as evidence is pink, and the intext citation is blue. The reference citation follows.
The list of introductory words below will help you integrate your quotations and paraphrases into your sentences.
Introductory words
acknowledges concludes elucidates offers
admits contends expresses presents
advises criticizes illustrates refutes
agrees demonstrates implies rejects
argues describes insists replies
asserts disagrees lists reports
believes discusses maintains responds
claims disputes notes suggests
concedes emphasizes objects writes
According to Allen (2007), thimerosal is a preservative that helped keep
vaccines aseptic and contains mercury—49.5% by weight.
References
Allen, A. (2007). Vaccine: The controversial story of medicine's greatest
lifesaver. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Galanti (2004) asserts, "In some cultures, part of the 'job' of the family is
to make sure that the nurses are spending enough time caring for their loved
one" (p. 87).
References
Galante, G. A. (2004). Caring for patients from different cultures.
Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Providing context. Creating intext citations isn't just a matter of formatting your parenthetical citations correctly—though that's certainly a concern. When inserting an intext citation, you need to give your reader enough context so that he or she understands whether you are quoting or paraphrasing words or ideas. Readers also need to understand why you are citing another author: Are you giving voice to a counterargument? Or are you providing evidence for a major point?
Signal to your reader why you are citing by using introductory phrases such as the one highlighted in the excerpt below:
The highlighted sentence explains why the citation is important—the writer of this paper wanted his readers to know that sustainability isn't just for particular industries, and he has support for this claim. He follows up that introductory sentence with supporting information from the source. The paraphrased information is introduced with a statement that suggests that another author wrote the idea originally. He then provides the authors' names and the year of the article's publication.
Avoiding Dropped Quotations. To avoid plagiarism, you'll want to make sure that you are using the four parts of a citation described in the "Four parts" tab. But you'll need a fifth part, placed in bold below, to avoid dropped quotations and to keep your writing fluid.
When writers don't provide an introductory or concluding statement to indicate why a source is brought into the conversation, we call this a dropped quotation because the quotation is seemingly dropped into the paragraph from nowhere. When citing the work of others, you need to give your reader enough context so that he or she understands whether you are quoting or paraphrasing words or ideas. Readers also need to understand why you are citing another author: Are you giving voice to a counterargument? Or are you providing evidence for a major point?
Be sure that every time you include a quotation in your paper, you have all of the following parts:
1. An introductory phrase that includes an introductory word, the name of the author, the publication date, and perhaps the title of the resource. On subsequent quotations from the same source, however, you can place the author's name, the publication date, and the page number at the end of the citation. Remember that you will need to place a comma between the introductory phrase and the quotation.
2. The quotation, surrounded by quotation marks. If the quotation ends in an exclamation point or a question mark, put that punctuation right before the closing quotation mark.
3. An intext citation with the author's name and publication date (if either of these were not included in your introductory phrase) and the page number. Place a period after the closing parenthesis of the intext citation.
4. At least one sentence that sums up why that quotation was so important to your thesis statement or the major point you are supporting in that place in the paper. This usually means that you should not end a paragraph with a quotation because you would not be providing enough context for why the quotation is important.
5. A reference page citation.
Though some believe that sustainability is the domain of industries such
as farming, education, or the automotive industry, the authors' review of
research addresses the current thoughts about sustainability in many industries
and suggests that in every industry, companies need to focus on their image in
order to stay competitive (Beheiry, Chong, & Hass, 2006).
Every time you cite a source, you should include the author's name, the date of publication, and the page number (if you are quoting). That won't change.
However, the location in which you provide this information will change depending on whether or not you write the author's name as part of the sentence. A later paraphrase or quotation by the same author in the same paragraph would not necessarily need to reiterate the author's name to introduce the quoted or paraphrased content, but it would need to include the name of the author, the publication date, and— if you are quoting—the page number in the parenthetical citation.
You will notice in the excerpt below that the author uses an introductory statement to explain why the quotation is important to his major point. After reading the first sentence, we know the quotation is going to tell us more about why the authors are interested in researching multinational corporations rather than governments or smaller businesses.
The conclusion sentence further explains why the quotation and paraphrased content are important to the research paper as a whole.
Grammatically correct sentences. Remember that when you use a quotation, you must still write complete sentences. Every sentence of your writing must be grammatically correct. When you use quotations, you need to incorporate them into your own sentences. Even if you use only part of a sentence from your original source, it is your responsibility to use the correct grammar so that it fits comfortably into your own writing. Break quotations into smaller pieces if you need to and combine paraphrases with quotations, but ensure that you don't change the meaning of the quotation by eliminating important words when you trim quotations down.
The sentence below contains a quotation in the middle of a sentence. Pay special attention to the way in which this quotation is cited.
Beheiry, Chong, and Hass (2006) explain their interest in finding a
business case for sustainability in specifically multinational corporations:
"Unlike many governments, multinationals have interests and influence that go
beyond national borders. Many multinational corporations already have
environmental management systems (EMSs), pollution reduction, and energy
saving practices in place" (p. 385). Though the authors admit that corporations
have not solved sustainability issues yet, they suggest that corporations will
eventually find the need to compete on a balanced sustainability more
compelling than the need for the shortterm savings represented by the status
quo—wasteful use of resources (Beheiry, Chong, & Hass, 2006).
Remember that, regardless of the punctuation that the intext citation precedes, the closing parenthesis of the citation falls before the closing punctuation. Never place the closing punctuation of the sentence inside the parenthetical citation.
Making changes to quotations. This may be surprising, but in order to keep your writing grammatically correct and concise, you can actually make changes to quoted material.
For example, you can change the first word of a quotation to an uppercase or lowercase letter so that the quotation better fits into the grammar of your own sentence. In the example below, Reyes actually began her sentence with "Developing," so the first letter was capitalized in the original. But that didn't fit in the grammar of the new sentence, so the letter was made lowercase.
You can also change the punctuation mark at the end of a quotation so that it fits the grammar of your own sentence: for example, a comma can become a period. Don't change the punctuation marks, however, in any way that would change the quotation's meaning. You wouldn't want to insert a question mark where an author was making a factual statement, for instance.
If you remove anything from the middle of a quotation, use three spaced ellipsis points ( . . . ) to indicate the omission:
Beheiry, Chong, and Hass (2006) explain that their experiment suggested
that companies that were more committed to all three pillars of sustainable
business practices—social development, environmental sustainability, and
economic development—were more likely to see projects coming in under
budget and on schedule. This is important, the authors claim, because "the
historical tendency to focus on environmental sustainability overaligned SD
[sustainable development] with the green movement and alienated the business
executives" (Beheiry, Chong, & Hass, 2006, p. 384). The authors argue that the
reason many companies are slow to embrace sustainable practices is that there
is no relevant business case to persuade those in charge that sustainability will
increase value to shareholders. The results of this experiment may be used to
support the idea that sustainability can reduce costs, which might encourage
business owners to adopt sustainable management practices.
One study found that "developing social networks on campus
counteracted isolation and invisibility" (Reyes, 2011, p. 257).
"For small firms . . . fixed costs are of special concern" (Gerhard &
Milkovich, 1990, p. 667).
Never remove a citation from the middle of a quotation. For example, if you want to quote this sentence from ShuFen Kao and B. Lusk's article "Attitudes Towards Death and Dying," you may not remove the citation of Benoliel, even if you are removing material around the citation:
You might alter the quotation in this way:
But you may not alter the quotation by removing the citation and anything around it:
You do not need to add sources cited within quotations from sources you are using to your own reference list.
Deciding whether to quote or paraphrase. In general, paraphrasing sources will keep your own writing from becoming choppy and seemingly thrown together. However, you might quote content directly if you feel that the author's original phrasing offers a tone or a concision that you would not want to disrupt. The paragraph below uses a quotation that imparts a tone that uniquely and powerfully describes the type of projects that citizens may object to, so the writer of this paper chose to keep the quotation intact because it offers more concision than he could replicate.
"This behavior might be explained by Benoliel (1987–1988), in her
review of the research literature concerning health care providers and dying
patients, that there is some evidence that avoidance of dying patients is a
preferred coping strategy for nurses."
"This behavior might be explained by Benoliel (1987–1988) . . . that
there is some evidence that avoidance of dying patients is a preferred coping
strategy for nurses."
"This behavior might be explained by . . . some evidence that avoidance
of dying patients is a preferred coping strategy for nurses."
Beheiry, Chong, and Hass (2006) suggest that "New roads in a
picturesque countryside, refineries in coastal wetlands, and dams on scarce
river resources are typical projects that attract fierce debate" (p. 385), but then
acknowledge that market forces generally are an important determining factor
for which projects are built where.