Creating an APA style Reference Page
General
 Write the term “References” centered, at the top of the page.
 List your items in alphabetical order.
 Use a hanging indent for each item. This means you left align the first line then indent every
line after.
 Double-space the entire page.
Book Citation
Author last name, First initial. (year of publication). Title (underline if handwritten). Place of
publication: Publisher.
Example:
Soto, G. (1997). Buried Onions. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.
Online sources with an author
Author last name, First initial. (year of publication). Title of webpage. Online magazine or
company that was responsible for the article/page. Retrieval date, from URL
(http://…..)
Example:
Brink, A. (1998). Nelson Mandela. Time online archive. Retrieved December 6th,
2006 from http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/mandela.html
Online sources without an author
Title of article. (date). Retrieval date, from URL
Example:
Nelson Mandela, a brief biography (2006). Retrieved January 4, 2007 from
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela.html
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Online Tips
It is better to find a source with an author when researching online.
Dates and copyright information is usually found on the bottom of web pages
If a webpage is referencing another web page, go to that original site for copyright
information
Online Resources
If you get stuck on a reference, use your Writer’s Inc book pages 285-295, or one of the
following web sites:
http://apastyle.apa.org/
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/06/
http://citationmachine.net
APA In-Text citations
When do I cite a source in my paper?
Anytime you reference another persons ideas or direct quotes.
Where do I put the citation?
You insert the citation when you are finished referencing another person’s work in a paragraph.
What should it look like?
It should look like this: (author last name, date).
Here is an example:
(Soto, 1998). *Notice the parenthesis goes inside the end-mark.
What should it NOT look like?
Don’t do this:
(http://www. http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/or/or65-1.html)
Use the author or the company that published the article if there is no author. For this example, you could
write (African National Congress, 2006).
What if there is no Author?
If it is a paper article with no author, you can write:
(“Mandela”, 1995). If “Mandela” was the title of your article.
If the author is stated as “Anonymous” write (Anonymous, 2005).