APA Format
In-text Citations or Parenthetical Referencing Guide
from OWL at Purdue and the TDSB Student Research Guide, 2003
In-text citations ( parenthetical references) are used to indicate the sources of the quotations,
paraphrased ideas, and facts you use in your essay or report. For each in-text citation, there
should be a full and complete reference in the Works Cited or Works Consulted List.
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If you are directly quoting material, you MUST include a page number in your in-text
citation.
If you are referring to a whole book, article, or website, you may include only the
author and year of publication in the in-text citation.
If you are referring to the ideas or facts you found in a source, but not directly quoting,
you may include only the author and year of publication in the in-text citation.
Capitalization:
Use capital letters for: all proper nouns, including author surnames and initials; all words in a
title over 3 letters in length; all parts of hyphenated words in a title; the first word after a colon
or dash in a title.
Title Formats:
Italicize titles of complete, longer works, such as novels, books, edited collections, movies,
websites, television series etc.
Put quotation marks around the titles of shorter parts of a whole work, such as short stories,
song titles, poems, articles, web pages, episodes of television series, short films etc.
Short Quotations:
Short quotations under 40 words in length are enclosed in quotation marks and incorporated
into the body of your text. The author’s name may be introduced in a “signal phrase” such as
“According to Jones, ….” If a signal phrase is not used, the author’s name must be included in
the in-text citation.
Long Quotations:
Long quotations of 40 words and over are not enclosed in quotation marks. They are placed in
a free-standing block, indented ½ inch from the left margin, and double-spaced. The final
punctuation of the quotation PRECEDES the in-text citation.
APA FORMAT In-text Citation Examples
Short direct quotation with a signal phrase:
According to Jones (1998), “Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was
their first time” (p. 199).
Short paraphrase:
The writer Sharon Jones says that students often have difficulty using APA style (1998).
Short direct quotation without a signal phrase:
She stated, “Students often had difficulty using APA style” (Jones, 1998, p.199), but she did not
offer an explanation as to why.
Long direct quotation:
Jones’s (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time citing
sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to
purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)
Direct quotation when you are using more than one work by the same author:
If you are using several sources by the same author, add enough information to the in-text
citation so that the reader can know which source you are quoting from.
“There is room enough in anyone’s backbone for too much duplicity” (Laurence, Jest, 1964, p.
182).
Direct quotation from a work with more than one author:
“The main cause of the fall of the Roman Empire was over-expansion of its boundaries” (Alcock
& Thornhill, 1993, p. 12).