APA Citations:
Everything You Want to Know
About What You Don’t Want to
Know
APA Checklist:
 First, review your instructor’s formatting
directions!
 Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on
standard-sized paper (8.5 X 11 inches) with
margins of 1 inch on all sides.
 Title page: includes a running head for
publication, title, and byline and affiliation.
 Abstract: If your instructor requires an abstract,
write a 75-100 word overview of your essay,
which should include your main idea and your
major points.
In-Text Citations
 Direct Quotations: include the author, year of
publication, and the page number for the
reference (preceded by "p.").
 Example: According to Mr. Melvin (2005), the purple lilacs
did not “bloom in the concrete driveway”(p. 199).
 Indirect Quotations: She declared, “The water
tastes of melons” (Monier, 1945, p. 234).
 Paraphrase: If you paraphrase, you only need
to cite the author and year, but are encouraged
to include the page number (Falgoust, 2002, p.
1918).
Long Quotations
 Salvadore Greco (1998) pronounces:
Place direct quotations longer than 40 words
in a free-standing block of typewritten lines,
and omit quotation marks. Start the
quotation on a new line, indented five spaces
from the left margin. Type the entire
quotation on the new margin, and indent the first
line of any subsequent paragraph within the
quotation five spaces from the new margin. The
parenthetical citation should come after closing
punctuation mark. (p.690)
Citing An Author or
Authors
 Research by Dupré and Pecanty (2007) asserts that you
must name both authors in the signal phrase or in the
parentheses each time you cite the work (p. 199).
 Or if you don’t use the author’s name in the sentence, cite like
this (Dupré & Pecanty, 2007).
 A Work by Three to Five Authors: List all the authors
in the signal phrase or in parentheses the first time you
cite the source (Chiasson, Carlos, Justin, & Comeaux,
2003, p. 198).
 In subsequent citations, only use the first author's last name
followed by "et al." in the signal phrase or in parentheses
(Chiasson et al., 2003, pgs. 9-8).
More on Authors…
 Fellini et al. (1960) state that if you have six or more
authors write the first author’s name, followed by “et
al.” And for the parentheses: (Fellini et al., 1945, p. 8).
 If the work does not have an author, cite the source by
its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two
in the parentheses (“Making it into the Toilet,” 1988, p.
9).
 According to the American Psychological Association
(2000), if the author is an organization or a
government agency, mention the organization in the
signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first
time you cite the source.
Just a bit more…
 For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-toperson communication, cite the communicator’s name,
the fact that it was personal communication, and the
date of the communication. Do not include personal
communication in the reference list. (E. Robbins,
personal communication, January 4, 2001).
 If you use a source that was cited in another source,
name the original source in your signal phrase.
According to Buckwheat, list the secondary source in
your reference list and include the secondary source
in the parentheses (as cited in Murphy, 2003, p.102).
And Some More…
 When your parenthetical citation includes two or more
works, order them the same way they appear in the
reference list, separated by a semi-colon (Cornholio,
1993, p. 3; Hill, 2002, p. 5).
 If the authors have the same last name, to prevent
confusion, use first initials to distinguish (E. Boo, 2004,
p. 7; D. Boo, 2009, p. 9).
 If you have two sources by the same author in the
same year (Buber, 2000a), use lower-case letters (a,
b, c) with the year to order the entries in the reference
list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the intext citation (Buber, 2004b).
And now for something
different (kind of) -- Indirect &
Electronic Sources!
If possible, cite an electronic document the
same as any other document by using the
author-date style.
The Unknown
 If no author or date is given, use the title in your
signal phrase or the first word or two of the title
in the parentheses and use the abbreviation
"n.d.” (“Bubbles and Boo,” n.d., p. 8).
 When an electronic source lacks page numbers,
use the ¶ symbol, or the abbreviation "para.”,
followed by the paragraph number (Hall, 2001, ¶
5) or (Hall, 2001, para. 5). If the paragraphs are
not numbered and the document includes
headings, provide the appropriate heading and
specify the paragraph under that heading.
Reference Lists
 All lines after the first line of each entry in your
reference list should be indented one-half inch
from the left margin.
 Authors' names are inverted (last name first).
 Reference list entries should be alphabetized by
the last name of the first author of each work.
 If you have more than one article by the same
author, list references in order by the year of
publication, starting with the earliest.
And Some More…
 For books, articles, Web pages, etc., capitalize only the
first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, the first
word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper
nouns. Do not capitalize the first letter of the second
word in a hyphenated compound word.
 Capitalize all major words in journal titles.
 Italicize titles of longer works such as books and
journals.
 Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles
of shorter works such as journal articles or essays in
edited collections.
Reference List Part I:
 Single author: Dubious, B. (2009). Friendship is
not unlike a ham sandwich. Current Topics in
Psychology, 11, 87-90.
 Two authors: Soprano, T., Corleono, M. (1974).
Scientists discover French is actually German.
The Christian Science Monitor, 66, 1034-1048.
 Three to six authors: List by last names and
initials; commas separate author names, while
the last author name is preceded again by "&.”
For more than six authors, list the first six as
above and then "et al.," which stands for "and
others."
Part I (Cont.)
Organization as author: American
Plumber Syndicate. (2010).
Unknown author: Merriam-Webster's
collegiate dictionary (10th ed.). (1993).
Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
Two or more works by the same author
in the same year: Hooker, T. J. (1981a).
Hooker, T.J. (1981b).
Reference List Part II:
 Basic outline for periodical references:
Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.
(Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume
number(issue number), pages.
 Paginated by volume: Rudolph, I. B. (1983).
Essential psychos for a housewife. Journal of
Psychological Empathy, 55, 899-900.
 Paginated by issue: Ribbig, E.X. (1022).
Freudian neuroses for a spring collection.
Journal of Journal, 44(23), 5-4.
 Article in a magazine: Millsap, R. Y., IV (1999,
April 20). Why is your daughter a girl: hard
questions to ask a robot. People, 145, 0-1.
Part II: (Cont.)
 Article in a newspaper: Schmuck, A.B. (2002,
December 23). Jack the Ripple drops a pebble
again. The Eternal Times, pp. 1A, 2B.
 Letter to Editor: Pimple, E.D. (2000, August).
Why does Don Johnson exist [Letter to editor]?
Scientific American, 245(3), 13.
 Review: Marx, G. (1888). The ineffable
quantifications of a prismatic psyche [Review of
the book Mommy, I wet my pants]. The
Contemporary Philosopher, 34, 432-100.
Reference List Part III:
 Basic book format: Author, A. A. (Year of
publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for
subtitle. Location: Publisher.
 Edited book, no author: Marx, G., & Marx, C.
(Eds.). (1997). How to tie your shoes in Senegal.
Beijing: Impudent Press.
 Edited book with an author or authors:
Gabilondo, P. (2003). Wilds Ducks: Tony
Soprano and castration (L. Stall, Ed.). New York:
Prometheus.
 Translation: Celan, P. (1960). Niemandrose.
(M. Theriot & P. Perkins, Trans.) New York:
Hover (Original work published in 900).
Part III (Cont.)
 Edition other than first: Falgoust, K. A. (1985).
Existential death: stories for a child’s bedtime
(10 ed.). Chicago: Harvard Press.
 Article of Chapter in an Edited Book: Author,
A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title
of chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of
book (pages and chapter). Location: Publisher.
 Multivolume Work: Schlopp, Z. (Ed.). (1987).
Dictionary of kitchen utensils (Vols. 1-4). New
York: Scribner’s.
Part III (Cont. some more)
 An entry in an encyclopedia: Bergman, I. (1998).
Rabbits. In The contemporary encyclopedia of birds (Vol.
23, pp. 509-510). Chicago: Encyclopedia of Birds.
 Work discussed in secondary source: List the original
source and use primary source in text.
 Dissertation abstract: Monier, C. (2060). A dialogue
with clowns (Doctoral dissertation, Nicholls State, 2001).
Dissertations Abstracts International, 62, 7741A.
 Government document: National Institute of Mental
Health (1900). Clinical studies of girls with cooties
(DHHS Publication No. ADM 90-1000). Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.
 Private Organization Report: American Psychiatric
Association. (2007). Practice guidelines for frog puppets
Reference List Part IV
 Article from online periodical: Author, A. A., &
Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of
article. Title of Online Periodical, volume
number(issue number if available). Retrieved
month day, year, from
http://www.address.com/full/url/
 Online scholarly journal article: Author, A. A.,
& Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of
article. Title of Journal, volume number.
Retrieved month day, year, from
http://address.com/full/url
 Article from database: Hilton, P., Richie, N., &
Kardashian, K. (2002). A study of the enjoyment
Part IV (Cont. {Last One,
I’m serious})
 Nonperiodical web document, web page, or
report: Author, A. A. (Date of publication). Title
of document. Retrieved month day, year, from
http://webaddress.com -- use “n.d.” if there’s no
date.
 Chapter or section of web document: Author,
A. A. (Date of publication). Title of article. In Title
of book or larger document (chapter or section
number). Retrieved month day, year, from
www.webaddress.com/full/url/.
 And Lastly…
THE END
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. 26 Aug. 2005. The
Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue University.
23 April 2006 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu>.