APA
Documentation Style
DH, APA 7
Referencing
 What is referencing and why is
it important?
 General guidelines for
referencing
Defining Referencing
 When you work on an assignment, you
should acknowledge the influence of
other writers on your work, listing their
publications as your sources of
information.
 This acknowledgement is what we call
referencing.
What should we reference?
 Do you have to reference
everything?
 We do not have to reference
common knowledge
Common knowledge
 Dates in history
 Scientific truths
 Election results
 General knowledge
Example
 If you refer to Newton’s laws of motion, you
don’t have to reference this information.
 If you claim that Apple sells ten times more
computers than Dell or Hewlett Packard,
you have to provide your source of
information.
Information that is not common
knowledge
 Opinions
 Theories
 Statements
 Claims
 Statistics\Graphs
 Population figures
 Financials
Example
 If you rely on statistical data,
you have to indicate your
sources because other sources
may provide different figures.
Referencing Styles
 Depending on the discipline
you study, you will be using a
prescribed referencing format.
Documentation

Modern Languages Association (MLA)

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE)

Council of Science Editors (CSE)

American Psychological Association (APA)
APA
 American Psychological Association (APA)
 The name-date method
Why is it important to reference?

Distinguish ideas
–

Show range/quality
–

A good assignment discusses a broad range of sources on
the topic
Direct reader
–

University assignments are all about using the ideas of
other people to support your opinions or views.
Good referencing directs your reader to the sources you use
Avoid plagiarism
Why do we need to cite our sources?
 to avoid plagiarism
 to show that you are well-informed
 to build credibility
 to help your reader to locate your
sources easily
Types of Publications
 Periodicals
 Non-periodicals
– Journals
– Books
– Magazines
– Reports
– Newspapers
– Brochures
General Guidelines for Referencing
 In the text—in-text referencing
 End-of-text referencing
APA
 An in-text citation gives the author of the
source (often in a signal phrase), the date of
publication, and at times a page number in
parentheses.
 At the end of the paper, a list of references
provides publication information about the
source.
Reference List
 Your reference list should direct your reader
to the information cited in your discussion.
 Think of your reference list as a signpost
that directs your reader to the sources you
have consulted for your assignment.
APA in-text citation
 Yanovski and Yanovski (2002) reported
that “the current state of the treatment for
obesity is similar to the state of the treatment
of hypertension several decades ago” (p.
600).
– [This in-text citation contains authors’ surnames,
the year of publication, and the page number]
ENTRY IN THE LIST OF REFERENCES
Yanovski, S. Z., & Yanovski, J. A. (2002). Drug
therapy: Obesity. The New England Journal
of Medicine, 346, 591-602.
The APA Format

The reference list is arranged in the alphabetical
order

The list is double-spaced throughout

Second and subsequent lines are indented

Initials of authors and editors are used instead of
first and middles names
APA Format
 The year of publication is placed
immediately after the name of the author
 In books and article titles, only the first
word of the title and subtitles and any
proper names are capitalized
APA Format
 The title of a periodical is capitalized
except for prepositions, articles, and
conjunctions within it; these items are left
in lower case except when they begin a
title or subtitle.
APA Format
 There are no quotation marks around the
title of any essay or article.
 Publishers’ names are given in full,
omitting only terms like “Company,”
“Co.,” or “Inc.”
APA Format
 The volume number of a journal is
italicized
 Sequences of page numbers are listed in
full; digits are not dropped.