Skip to Main Content

SU APA LibGuide: Citing Sources Within the Paper

APA LibGuide

Examples of In-Text Citations

THIS PAGE IS BEING UPDATED TO REFLECT APA 7TH EDITION.

  PLEASE CHECK BACK WITH US SOON!

 

BELOW IS INFORMATION FROM THE APA 6TH EDITION.

If you use a quotation from an author, summarize or paraphrase another person’s ideas or research, you must identify (cite) the source of that information within the body of your paper.  These citations are called parenthetical or in-text citations because the citation may be in parentheses at the end of the quotation or paraphrase. 

 

 

Source

First Citation (author/title is name in the sentence

Subsequent Citation (author/title has been previously named in the text

Parenthetical Citation (author/title is not named in the sentence)

No Author

Short Title (2009)

Article Title” (2007)

 

(Short Title, 2009)

(“Article Title”, 2009)

One Author

Shaw (1992) wrote,

Shaw (1992)

(Shaw, 1992)

Two Authors

Spellman and Whiting state (2005)…

Spellman and Whiting (2005)

(Spellman & Whiting, 2005)

3-5 Authors

The study by Knight, Jones, Cline, Brown and Whitesell (2009)

Knight et al. (2009)

(Knight, Jones, Cline, Brown & Whitesell, 2009)

6+ Authors

Goupta et al. (2010) found that…

Goupta et al. (2010)

(Goupta et al. 2010)

Corporate Author

Department of Children and Family Services (DFACS, 2009)

DFACS (2009)

(Department of Children and Family Services [DFACS], 2009)

Multiple Authors

Several studies (Knight, 2010; Jones and Brown, 2009; Cline and Whitesell, 2010)

 

(Knight, 2010; Jones and Brown, 2009; Cline and Whitesell, 2010)

Secondary Source

Shaw’s writings (as cited in Johnson, 2005)

 

Shaw’s writings (as cited in Johnson, 2005)

 

Exact quote or specific part of a source

Whitesell and Brown (2005, p.116)

 

(Whitesell and Brown, 2005, p. 116)

Personal communication

F. Garcia (personal communication, Dec. 20, 2010)

 

(F. Garcia, personal communication, Dec. 20, 2010)

 

 

 

*table based on Basic Citation Styles (Table 6.1, p. 177) in the APA Manual.

 

Direct Quotations

If the quotation is less than 40 words, enclose it in double quotation marks. 

Example:

According to the Anti-Defamation League, "fewer than half offer guidance about whether schools may intervene in bullying involving 'electronic communication,' which almost always occurs outside of school and most severely on weekends" (Hoffman, 2010, p.5).

For quotations longer than 40 words, display text in a freestanding block. Quotations longer than 40 words are not enclosed in quotation marks. Start the block text on a new line and indent 1/2" from the margin. 

Example:

            Martha Kanter (2009) states that the U.S. Department of Education wants to:

                        create and improve existing policies, including student financial aid, greater transparency and

                        efforts to determine what works in American higher education….provide more

                        financial support to students and serve as a “bully pulpit” for change. (p.9)