APA STYLE: SEVENTH EDITION
These guidelines follow the 2020 7th edition of the American Psychological Association’s Publication Manual, which is widely used in the health and social sciences. They focus on documentation, but the manual addresses issues from abbreviations to layout and should be consulted for further information. In an APA-style paper, you’ll identify the author and year of each source any time you use it. That information directs readers to more detailed entries on a reference list at the paper’s end.
Read the book and attempt the quiz at the end of it
5. Considerations 2
6. Group authors. When the author of your source is an organization, its name is spelled out in full on first reference. If it’s well-known or will be used at least two more times, an abbreviation (in parentheses) follows the full name and replaces the full name later. Don’t go back and forth between the full name and the abbreviation. Manual, p. 268.
7. One author, multiple works. If you’re citing two works written by the same author(s) in different years, cite them as you normally would. If you have two works written by the same author(s) in the same year, however, those works will be listed alphabetically by title on your reference page, where they’ll be labeled (YYYYa) and (YYYYb). Manual, p. 267.
Cisneros (2011a) found….
…..direction for future research (Cisneros, 2011a).
8. One citation, multiple sources. If you refer to several sources within the same
parentheses, put them in the same order in which they appear in your reference list and separate them with a semicolon. Manual, p. 263.
(Andrews et al., 1996; Gillis, 2017; Gillis, 2019; Shirley & Blythe, 2013)
9. One paragraph, multiple references to same source. If all the information in a paragraph comes from one part of one source, identify its author and date at the beginning. If you use transitional phrases and pronouns like “these findings” to show that each following sentence paraphrases material in the same source, you won’t have to repeat the citation unless your teacher requires it. Manual, pp. 269-270.
If you cite a source by putting the author’s name in your sentence, you don’t have to include the date again in other sentences within the same paragraph (although some teachers will expect you to). You do have to include the date in any parenthetical citations. Manual, p. 265.
Travers (2006) found that the children underestimated the amount of sugar in their diets. Travers also found that the children in the study consumed more than twice the recommended amount of sugar. They also failed to recognize the sugar content of many common foods.
If your paragraph moves back and forth between different sources or between one source and your discussion, you’ll cite the source of each sentence to help keep the reader on track. Any sentence you don’t cite is understood to represent your own words and ideas.
Ray and Kelly (2014) proposed that creative writing assignments be integrated into composition classes. It is unclear, however, that this suggestion would improve test scores. Although 72% of students surveyed believed that creative writing exercises improved their written fluency (Ray & Kelly, 2014), other research suggests that those gains in fluency do not transfer to research assignments (Collins, 2011).
10. Secondary citations. If an idea or phrase that you want to use is quoted in another source, find the original source if you can. If not, name the original source in your sentence and then use parentheses and the words “as cited in” to identify the source (listed on your reference page) where you found it. Manual, p. 258.
Laurence (2001) found no correlation between the variables (as cited in Brooke, 2003).
No correlation was found (Laurence, 2001, as cited in Brooke, 2003).