Citations- APA Style
First, a few things to note for our class:
●Wikipedia is not accepted as a source.
● Please refrain from uses advocacy sites as credible sources. Though the
information listed on the website may in fact be correct, often the tone is
inflammatory, derogatory, and written in such a way to promote the position or
view of the site’s authors. If there is factual information reported on the advocacy
site, you should be able to locate the same information from a credible source.
● Be wary of websites that do not list an author or a date. Much of the
information on the internet is correct and up-to-date, but lots of it is not. If there
is no date confirming when the page was last updated, you could be reporting tenyear-old statistics. Also, if there is no author listed, then there is no one claiming
responsibility for the information reported on the website. Who knows, it could
be your best friend’s pesky eleven-year-old brother writing on the website…
● Try to find most of your information from peer-reviewed journals and articles,
credible newspapers and magazines, and even books. You may of course use the
internet to aid you in your research; we simply ask you are wise as to what
information you glean from the internet.
● If you have any questions about specific citations, you can visit
www.apastyle.org. At the bottom of the page is a FAQ citation tab where you can
find answers to many common questions. Also, if you are in the School of Social
Work or in another field where APA is the expected style of writing, we suggest
you purchase the APA Publication Manual from the Bookstore. It is usually less
than $30.00, and you will use it throughout your college career and possibly even
beyond that.
For APA style, you will be using in-text citations and will also include a
“References List” on a separate sheet following your paper. If you cite something in the
text of your paper, you must include the full citation in your References List. Also, if a
source is listed in your References List, it must be cited somewhere in your paper.
In-text citations:
APA uses in-text citations; you do not need to worry about formatting footnotes.
Generally, you need the most basic of information about the source included in your intext citation.
● For a work by one author or two authors, you always include the last name(s) of
the author(s) and year.
e.g. Ronda claimed to have been traumatized by Jenny’s laugh (Smith, 2008).
However, many of the students in the Social Work 2220 class thought Ronda’s laughter
was the culprit (Liberty & Bell, 2008).
● For a work by three, four, or five authors, include the all authors for the first
time the citation appears: (Goldie, Locks, Three & Bears, 2006).
After the first citation, use only the last name of the first author followed by “et
al.”: (Goldie, et al., 2006)
● For a work by six or more authors, cite only the last name of the first author
followed by “et al.”
● If you quote directly from a source, you must include the page number from
where you retrieved the quotation. If not, it is considered plagiarism. You only need the
page number if you have quoted directly
e.g. The authors stated, “Seventy-five percent of all gunshots occurred within a
ten mile radius of the owners’ homes” (Smith & Weston, 2008, p. 174).
● You do not have to always cite the authors, year of publication, (and page
number, if applicable) at the end of the sentence:
e.g. Smith and Weston (2008) claimed, “Seventy-five percent of all gunshots
occurred within a ten mile radius of the owners’ homes”(p. 174).
Reference List:
As mentioned before, your reference list should match what you cited in your
paper. It should be organized in alphabetical order, according to the last names of the
authors. If you cite two different publications by the same author, the earliest publication
is listed first. If groups, governmental agencies, institutions, or associations are
considered the author, write out the full title (e.g. University of Missouri, School of
Social Work).
Periodical:
Smith, G.B, & Weston, B.C. (2008). Views of Recent Gun Control Laws. Hunting
Magazine, 34, 104-111.
Nonperiodical:
Johnson, J.H., Brookhart, L.N., & Griffith, C.M. (2007). Children’s House. Boston:
Austin Publishing.
Online Sources:
For online sources, you include the author name(s), publishing date, the day you
originally retrieved the information and the website:
Johnson, J.H., & Brookhart, L.N. (2005). APA Help for You! Retrieved August 15, 2008
from http://www.madeupwebsite.com.