APA Styling – In-Text Citations

• General Overview
  • Any time a piece of work is referenced in a paper, it needs to be included in the reference page at the end of the paper.
  • When referring to earlier research, always use the past tense.
    • Example: Doe (2014) found…
  • The author’s last name and the year of publication should appear in the text.
    • Example: (Doe, 2014)…
  • If a direct quote is used, the citation should include the page number as well.
• Capitalization, italics, and underlining in-text
  • Know when to use capitalization, italics, or underlining:
    • When citing titles: capitalize all words that are more than four letters long; some exceptions apply.
    • Italicize or underline titles of longer works such as: books, movies, television series, or albums.
    • Use quotation marks around the titles of short works, such as journal articles or song titles.
• Short quotations
  • Include the author, year of publication, and page number (always preceded by “p.”).
  • Introduce the quote with the author’s last name and publication year (in parentheses); the page number goes after the quote is finished.
    • Example: Doe (2014) found that “insert short quotation here” (p. 100).
• Long quotations
  • Direct quotations that are 40 words or longer are placed in a freestanding block, double-spaced, with noquotation marks.
    • The block is indented ½ inch from the left margin (where a new paragraph would begin), and the entire quotation is typed in this new margin.
    • The quotation is started on a new line, after the author’s last name and publication year (in parentheses) are introduced; the page number, again, is placed after the quote is finished (still in the margin).
    • Example: Doe (2014) found that:

       “Insert long quotation here. Insert long quotation here.         
      Insert long quotation here. Insert long quotation here.         
      Insert long quotation here. Insert long quotation here.      
      Insert long quotation here. Insert long quotation here.          
      Insert long quotation here. Insert long quotation here.
      Insert long quotation here. Insert long quotation here.      
      Insert long quotation here” (p. 100).

• Summarizing/paraphrasing
  • Summarizing/paraphrasing includes using another’s idea(s), but not directly quoting the author (i.e. putting another’s idea in one’s own words)
  • To do this in-text: reference the author’s last name and year of publication, either before or after the paraphrase.

• If before, the format is: Last name (year of publication)
• If after, the format is: (Last name, year of publication).
• APA Style® strongly encourages, although not required, also including the page number.

^{(All information derived from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ and http://www.apastyle.org/index.aspx)}