APA 7th Edition Basics Manual
Introduction
Work submitted to courses at American College of Education (ACE) should follow scholarly
writing practices. While all work submitted to courses should demonstrate original thought,
students use peer-reviewed and relevant research to give their own ideas credibility. Many
colleges and universities, including ACE, use APA formatting to provide a uniform way to
present references and citations of others’ research, which allows readers to focus on content.
This document provides the basics for formatting in-text citations and references in APA format.
Please understand these examples are not meant to be exhaustive, and all students are highly
encouraged to purchase the most recent edition of the APA manual to ensure they are following
all APA rules carefully. In addition to the citation and reference examples, please keep these
important aspects of APA and ACE requirements in mind while completing assignments:

All research and references cited in a paper should be published within the last five
years - unless a piece of research is seminal to a specific field of study.

Though first person (I, my, etc.) is permitted in APA 7 th edition, it can hinder scholarly
tone. Therefore, work submitted in ACE courses should be written in third person, unless
an instructor specifically states otherwise. Even when asked for personal reflections,
limited use of “I” is preferred. Instead, students can state “this author” or “the
researcher.” Second person (you, etc.) should also be avoided in scholarly writing.

Active voice is preferred. In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the verb
(e.g. Researchers found…). In passive voice, the subject of the sentence is being acted
upon (e.g. The topic was researched and it was found…). While passive voice is
sometimes appropriate, active voice keeps sentence structure clear and concise.

Verb tense should be consistent throughout a paper. When discussing research that has
already taken place, use past tense (Researchers found…) or past perfect tense
(Research has proven…). Present tense can be used when discussing conclusions to be
drawn from the research and applied to future scenarios.

People first language should be used when discussing individuals or groups of people to
avoid defining people by a label (e.g. use Persons with disabilities (people first) instead
of disabled people (defined by label)).

In most assignments, each paragraph should include at least one citation. Check the
examples provided in this document for correct formatting. All in-text citations should
have a corresponding reference at the end of the paper.

All assignments that have in-text citations must include a reference page. All references
on the reference page should have a corresponding in-text citation.

Initial posts to the Discussion Board are expected to have citations and references.
Citation Examples
Paraphrasing or Referring to an Idea or Information
In scholarly writing, you will refer to other author's research to provide credibility to the
statements you are making in your own assignments. When referring to others' work,
you typically want to paraphrase the ideas and put them in your own words. Direct
quotes will be discussed later in this document and should be used sparingly.
By paraphrasing carefully, you will avoid a high Turnitin score on your course
submissions. All Turnitin scores should be below 20%.
When paraphrasing or referring to an idea or information, you must still cite the work
to avoid plagiarism. The following variations of in-text citations are acceptable.
Smith (2020) discussed job performance....
In a recent study (Smith, 2020) on job performance, employee respondents stated....
In 2020, Smith discussed job performance, stating....
A recent study on job performance revealed...(Smith, 2020).
Citing a Work with One or Two Authors
When citing work with one or two authors, list the last names of all authors each time
you refer to their work. When using the authors within the structure of the sentence,
spell out "and." When referring to the authors in a parenthetical citation, use the
ampersand (&).
Smith and Jones (2020) identified four factors....
In a recent study (Smith & Jones, 2020), four factors were identified....
In 2020, Smith and Jones identified four factors....
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Citing a Work with Three or More Authors
When citing a work with three or more authors, only use the first author's last name
followed by et al. for all citations, even the first. Note where there are periods in et al.
Smith et al. (2020) stated...
The four factors identified were...(Smith et al., 2020).
Note: If two sources have the same first authors, you will want to cite enough authors
before the et al. so there is no confusion on which reference applies to the citation.
Smith, Jones, et al. (2020)
Smith, Thompson, et al. (2020)
Citing a work from an Organization or Group
If the author is an organization or a government agency (something that happens a lot
when citing the department of education, district testing manuals, medical facility
codes, etc.), state the organization or group in the citation as the author followed by
the year of publication.
According to the Indiana Department of Education (2020)...
The standards set forth state...(Indiana Department of Education, 2020).
If the organization or group uses an abbreviation, include it in parentheses in the first
citation of the source:
According to the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) (2020),...
All subsequent citations can then simply use IDOE followed by the year (IDOE, 2020).
Your reference list should still spell out the full name of the organization or group.
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Citing a Work with No Author
If you are citing a work with no author, use an abbreviated version of the title of the
page or reference you are using in quotation marks followed by the date.
Note: At the graduate level, it is rare to cite a work with no true author. You may want
to question the quality of the source if no author can be found.
A similar study of job performance found interesting correlations between...
(“Performance Management,” 2020).
Citing a Work with No Author or Date
If you are citing a work with no author and no date, use an abbreviated version of the
title of the page or reference you are using in quotation marks and n.d. (for no date).
NOTE: It is very rare in scholarly writing to come across a reference within no author
or date. If this occurs, critically assess the credibility of the source.
In another study of job performance, it was discovered employees are more
successful when... (“Change Management,” n.d.).
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Referring to a Work Cited in Another Source
Oftentimes in scholarly articles, you will find authors citing another author's work. The
article you are reviewing firsthand is considered the secondary source, while the work
being cited by the authors in the article you are reviewing is considered a primary
source.
There is a proper way to cite the primary source if you wish to use it. However, it is
always best to view and cite the primary source firsthand if you can retrieve it and use
secondary source formats sparingly, if at all.
As an example, if Brown and Smith’s work is cited in Tubbs and you did not read
Brown and Smith’s work, the in-text citation would appear as:
Brown and Smith (as cited in Tubbs, 2004) interviewed....
In your Reference list, you would only provide the complete Tubbs source since that
is the one you reviewed. Your Reference list should only include the references you
reviewed firsthand and have cited in your paper.
Tubbs, S. L. (2004). A systems approach to small group interaction. McGraw Hill.
Citing a Personal Communication
Personal communications are private letters, emails, conversations, interviews, and
phone calls between you and another person. Cite personal communications in the
text only; there is no need to include it in the reference page.
In an interview with Dr. Smith, ...(J. Smith, personal communication, August 1, 2017).
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Citing Yourself and Self-Plagiarism
Each assignment in your courses should be treated as a fresh start. At ACE, you are
not permitted to reuse work verbatim after you have received credit for it in a
completed course. When you reuse your work, that is considered self-plagiarism.
Turnitin will flag work you have previously submitted in your courses. Even if an
assignment in one class seems similar to an assignment you had in a previous class,
you should be expanding and growing your ideas and knowledge base. If you would
like to quote an idea you presented in a previous paper, treat yourself as the author
and your paper as an unpublished paper. Use this sparingly.
If Janice Smith wanted to cite a paper she wrote in a previous class at ACE or at any
other institution, her in-text citation would look like this:
In an unpublished paper, this author previously discussed the "importance of citing
your sources" (Smith, 2015, p. 1).
You must include a reference for your unpublished paper in the reference section of
your current paper.
Incorporating Direct Quotes into Your Papers
Direct quotes should be used only when it adds value to your discussion. In the
majority of cases, you will want to paraphrase ideas rather than directly quote. When
you must directly quote, enclose short quotes (fewer than 40 words) within quotation
marks. Page or section/paragraph number(s) must be included for all direct quotes.
If you are using a source with no page numbers (like a web page or brochure), state
the section heading (if available), and paragraph number. Paragraph number only is
permissible if the document has no section headings.
Long quotes consisting of 40 or more words should rarely be used in scholarly writing.
Please refer to the APA Manual for how to format long quotes in block quote format.
Papero (2018) stated “systems thinking looks at….” (p. 1).
Smith (2020) states, "We know that when the body..." (Introduction section, para. 2).
When the author is not the subject of your sentence and the whole citation is in
parentheses, your citation at the end of the quote would look like the following:
(Papero, 2018, p. 1)
(Smith, 2020, Introduction section, para. 2)
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Citing the Same Source Multiple Times in the Same Paragraph
Sometimes, you need to cite the same work several times in one paragraph. It can
get very redundant to have every sentence end in the same parenthetical citation.
APA provides some guidance to help this redundancy:
1. The first time you use the source as a subject of a sentence, you include the
author's name and year of publication.
2. All subsequent uses of the source as a sentence subject does not need to
include the year within the same paragraph.
3. All parenthetical citations must always include the author and year.
4. When you start a new paragraph, these guidelines start over.
Papero (2018) stated “systems thinking looks at the way in which the parts interact
with one another to create the larger whole, and how the larger whole, in turn,
regulates the parts which make it up” (p. 1). Papero noted systems thinking is useful
when understanding the differences in how family units function. Each individual
member of a family system impacts the function of the whole (Papero, 2018).
Citing Multiple Sources in the Same Parentheses
When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, cite them in the order
they appear in your reference list, separated by a semi-colon.
(Smith, 2018; Thompson, 2017; Xavier, 2019)
Note: If all sources are from the same author, only cite the author once, followed by
the dates in chronological order. If there is a reference with no date, list n.d. first.
(Smith, n.d., 2017, 2018)
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Citing Two or More Works with the Same Author and the Same Year
If you have two or more sources by the same author in the same year, use lower-case
letters (a, b, c) after the year to order the sources in the reference list. Use the same
lower-case letters assigned to the reference with the year in the in-text citation.
(Smith, 2019a; Smith 2019b)
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Reference Examples
General Information
Your reference page is the last page of your paper (unless you include appendices). Your
references should begin on their own page. When you have written your last sentence of your
paper, insert a page break to take you to the top of a new page. The word "References" (no
quotes around it) should be centered at the top of the page and in bold font.
Only sources you have used and cited in your paper should be included in your reference list. If
a reference does not have a corresponding citation, either add a citation or do not reference it.
Do not leave your reader guessing what information came from which source.
All references should be in alphabetical order and double spaced. Pay special attention to what
is capitalized and italicized, as well as spacing and periods. (Note: In the interest of space,
reference examples are not double spaced in this document.)
All references should have hanging indents, meaning the first line of the reference is flush left,
while the second line of the reference is indented by one tab. To format this in Word, you can go
to the "Home" menu > Paragraph > Special (under indention) > Hanging. You can also Google
"How to create hanging indents in Word" for how-to guides and videos.
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Referencing a Journal Article
When referencing a journal article, use the article authors, date of publication, article
title, journal title, volume number, issue number, and page number(s). If the article
was retrieved in an online format, the URL for the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or
journal homepage (if no DOI is available) should be included. Do not use the URL of
the database used to retrieve the article.
NOTE: Pay special attention to capitalization protocols and punctuation in references.
For the name of the article, only the first word of the article, proper nouns, and any
words following a hyphen or colon should be capitalized. This capitalization rule will
be similar in other types of sources. The name of the journal should have every word
capitalized, with exception of non-essential words like the, of, a, etc.
Lastname, A. A., Lastname, B. B., & Lastname, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of
Periodical, Volume number(Issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy
Specific Example with DOI (preferred)
Chee, C. L., Shorty, G., & Robinson Kurpius, S. E. (2019). Academic stress of Native
American undergraduates: The role of ethnic identity, cultural congruity, and
self-beliefs. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 12(1), 65-73.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000094
Specific Example with Journal Homepage (only if DOI is not available)
Baral, R. (2020). Comparing the situation and person-based predictors of work-family
conflict among married working professionals in India. Equality, Diversity and
Inclusion, 39(5), 479-495. https://www.emerald.com/insight/
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Referencing a Newspaper Article
If the source comes from a site with an associated daily or weekly newspaper, the title
of the article should be unformatted, and the title of the newspaper should be
italicized.
If the source does not have an associated daily or weekly newspaper, the title of the
article should be italicized, while the title of the news source should be unformatted.
If the source was retrieved in print rather than online, omit the URL and include a
page number instead (if available).
Site with Daily or Weekly Newspaper
Lastname, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of News Source. URL
Hall, B. (2020, June 10). A single session of exercise alters 9,815 molecules in our
blood. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/well/move/asingle-session-of-exercise-alters-9815-molecules-in-our-blood.html
Site with No Daily or Weekly Newspaper
Lastname, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of News Source. URL
Briggs, H. (2020, June 27). How one teaspoon of Amazon soil teems with fungal life.
BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53197650
Article Retrieved in Print
Lastname, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of News Source, page.
Hall, B. (2020, June 10). A single session of exercise alters 9,815 molecules in our
blood. New York Times, 13.
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Referencing a Magazine Article
Magazine articles can be either retrieved in print or online, which determines the
reference format.
In Print
Lastname, A. A., Lastname, B. B., & Lastname, C. C. (Year, Month Day). Title of
article/page. Title of Magazine, volume(issue), pages.
Ortega, R. P. (2020, July 3). Improbable oasis. Science, 369(6499), 20-25.
Article Online
Lastname, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Magazine. URL
Heid, M. (2019, October 1). Is Melatonin safe to take every night? Time.
https://time.com/5672106/melatonin-safety/
Note: If the online version of the magazine also has a volume/issue, format the
reference like the print version and include the URL at the end of the reference. Some
online magazines also have DOIs. If available, the DOI should replace the website
URL.
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Referencing Other Online Content
Online content varies in author attribution. Sometimes it has a clear author or authors;
sometimes an organization appears to be the author; and sometimes no author can
be located. Each author attribution type has a slightly different format noted below.
Note: If no author is available, critically analyze the quality of the source.
Content with Individuals as Author
Lastname, A. A., Lastname, B. B., & Lastname, C. C. (Year, Month Day (if
applicable)). Title of article/page. Title of Website. URL
Michal, K. (2019, September 13). Brene Brown on empathy: How we’re showing up in
all the wrong ways for those we love. Elephant Journal.
https://www.elephantjournal.com/2019/09/brene-brown-flawlessly-definesempathy-in-this-enlightening-endearing-video-kelsey-michal/
Content with Organization as Author
Organization Name. (Year, Month Day (if applicable)). Title of article/page. Title of
Website (if different than organization). URL
Autism Speaks. (n.d.). Autism statistics and facts.
https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-statistics
No Author or Organization Known
Title of article/page. (Year, Month Day (if applicable)). Title of Website. URL
How to temper eggs. (2020, January 1). Spend with Pennies.
https://www.spendwithpennies.com/how-to-temper-eggs/
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Referencing a Book
When referencing a book, use author(s), year of publication, title of book, and
publisher. Take note of the capitalization of the book title.
Lastname, A. A., & Lastname, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of work: Subtitle if
included. Publisher Name.
Huba, M., & Freed, J. (2000). Learner-centered assessment on college campuses:
Shifting the focus from teaching to learning. Allyn and Bacon.
Referencing Books with Multiple Editions
When referencing a book with multiple editions use author(s), year of publication, title
of book, edition number, and publisher.
Lastname, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Subtitle if included (edition
number). Publisher Name.
Ruggiero, V. (2001). The art of thinking: A guide to critical and creative thought (6th
ed.). Longman.
Referencing an Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
When referencing an article or chapter in an edited book, you want to include both
information about the chapter and the overall book.
Chapterauthor, A. A., & Chapterauthor, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In
C. C. Editor & D. D. Editor (Eds.), Title of work: Subtitle if included (pp. pages
of chapter). Publisher.
Shapiro, P. (2020). Cardiovascular disease. In P. Summergrad, D. A. Silbersweig, P.
R. Muskin, & J. Querques (Eds.), Textbook of Medical Psychiatry (pp. 175192). American Psychiatric Association Publishing.
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Referencing a Brochure, Handout, Assessment
When referencing a brochure, handout, assessment, etc. authored by an
organization, use the name of the organization, year, title of material, type of
publication in brackets [Brochure, Assessment, etc.], and publisher. If the organization
and publisher are the same, omit the publisher from the reference. If the work was
retrieved online, include the URL as well.
Organization. (Year). Name of brochure/handout [Type of publication]. Publisher. URL
MJ International. (1989). Wilderness survival [Assessment]. Jossey-Bass Pheiffer.
Research and Training Center on Independent Living. (2018). Guidelines for reporting
and writing about people with disabilities [Brochure].
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Increasing physical activity
among adults with disabilities [Infographic].
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/materials/infographicincreasing-physical-activity.html
Referencing ACE Resources
When referencing ACE resources, such as videos and lecture notes, use the following
formatting below. It should be noted, course materials are not viewable by the public.
American College of Education. (year). Course title: Module number [Lesson content].
LMS name. URL to course content
American College of Education. (2020). Introduction to classroom management:
Module 2 [Video]. Canvas. https://ace.edu
American College of Education. (2020). Introduction to classroom management:
Teaching Style Survey [Handout]. Canvas. https://ace.edu
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Unpublished Works
As discussed in the citations section of this document, you may occasionally need to
cite yourself if you are wishing to refer back to an assignment previously submitted in
another course. You must do this to avoid self-plagiarism, and you should use this
option sparingly. The majority of all assignments should be fresh ideas and new work.
When you cite your previous work, you will put it in the format of an unpublished
manuscript.
Yourlastname, A. A. (Year). Name of paper [Unpublished manuscript]. College Name.
Smith, B. (2019). Diversity in the classroom [Unpublished manuscript]. American
College of Education.
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