Make sure to read an overview about Citations to ensure you have a clear understanding of the multiple citation formats required by different disciplines. See this Writer’s Handbook page for a good overview. See the APA website for tutorials.
APA Format Basics
Check out the basics for both IN-TEXT and REFERENCE citations.
Reference Citations
Reference Citations give all the publishing information. Online sources don’t need a retrieval date unless they are websites likely to change. Online sources don’t always need the full URL, but it’s safer to put in the full URL and then whittle down as needed. If there is a DOI use that instead of the URL. See OWL Purdue for more on electronic sources.
For the order of information and whether to use abbreviations, lower case, etc., please look at the example below:
In-text Citations
In-text Citations require the author, the year and the page number (with a “p”) each separated by commas. The period of the sentence goes AFTER the citation. E.g. (Jones, 2020, p. 257). Multiple authors (Smith, Jones & Wilson, 2020, p. 257). No authors (“How to,” 2020, p. 2). No date or page (“How to,” n.d., para. 3).
How and where to place In-Text Citations
As an introductory phrase:
According to Friedman (2005), international trade barriers will have mostly disappeared in the 21st century.
Friedman (2005) said that professionals “better be good at … touchy-feely service” (p. 14).
At the end of a general summary (no page needed):
The 21st Century is characterized by the “flat world” in which barriers among countries, communities, and citizens no longer exist or are flattened. As a result, professionals must prepare for the threat of outsourcing (Friedman, 2005).
At the end of a quote even within a sentence (p. needed):
Professionals “better be good at the touchy-feely service stuff” (Freidman, 2005, p. 14) if they want to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
When paraphrasing (p. needed):
Since factories are easy to outsource abroad, American workers should prepare to work in the service industry by developing soft skills (Friedman, 2005, p. 14).
Block quote (more than 4 lines):
