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
1. Citing Sources in Your Paper
Your readers can’t know where any word, idea, or information in your sentence comes from unless you tell them. It could be your own idea, or from the source you just mentioned, or from a completely different source. That’s why you need to tell them! Once you’ve told them, they may want to find out more about that source. To help them, your citation will always include the first word(s) of your reference page entry--usually the name of the person(s) or group considered the “author” of the work. Direct quotations require page or paragraph numbers, but paraphrases usually don’t. Both can be cited narratively (author’s name as part of the sentence) or parenthetically (author’s name in parentheses after the sentence).