Professional Writing Using APA Citations

Throughout the Family and Human Services program you have learned different aspects of APA formatting. In FAML 160 you learned about basic formatting. In FAML 100 you were taught how to use Level 1 and Level 2 headings in your writing. In CHILD 210 you will learn how to use APA citations and references. As with the previous courses in this program, you will be held accountable for this information moving forward in this course and in the future courses you will take. You may want to bookmark this page so you can reference it in the future. 

In-Text Citations and References

Rules of In-Text Citations

What is an in-text citation?

When writing academic papers, it is important to find credible references and cite those references both in your paper (in-text) and on the reference page. The way we show this information is called a publication convention, and it is used to help readers know where to find someone else's resources. The important information is always in the same place, so everyone knows where to find it. 

How to use in-text citations

Paraphrasing and using proper citations are skills that take practice. Following the six steps below will help you improve these skills rapidly. 

Six Steps to Proper Citations:

1. Read the work you want to cite. 

2. Identify an idea you want to put in your paper. 

3. Write a sentence about that idea. Quotes should be used sparingly or not at all. 

4. Write a reference list entry for the work. 

5. Add the corresponding in-text citation to the sentence. 

6. Repeat as needed for more works and ideas.

CHECKLIST 

(American Psychological Association, 2020)

Complete the following checklist for each sentence in your paper that relies on another 

source. Remember to cite all ideas, findings, results, or other information that is not your 

own and is not common knowledge. It may be helpful to highlight or annotate your paper 

to remind yourself of what information comes from another source and what is your 

contribution. 

• For each sentence that relies on another source:

• Have you paraphrased as much as possible rather than quoted?

• If you directly quoted, is the quotation necessary? Could you paraphrase instead?

• For each sentence that you paraphrased:

• Did you avoid patchwriting? Have you done more than omit a few words and substitute synonyms? To make a better paraphrase, reframe ideas and make them specific to your topic and argument.

• Did you avoid overcitation? For long paraphrases, have you used one citation when introducing the idea and not repeated the citation unless there is a change of topic, source, or paragraph?

• For each citation of a paraphrase:

• Does your citation include the author and year?

• For parenthetical citations, is there a comma between the author and year? (Author, year)

• For narrative citations, is the date in parentheses after the author? Author (year)

• For each sentence that contains a quotation (use sparingly or not at all):

• Is the quotation incorporated into a sentence you wrote? Did you use appropriate punctuation (comma, colon, no punctuation) to introduce the quotation?

• Do short quotations (less than 40 words) appear in double quotation marks?

• Do long quotations (40 or more words) appear in the block quotation format?

• Is the block double-spaced?

• Is the block indented 0.5 inches from the left margin?

• Have you removed any quotation marks from around the block?

• For each citation of a direct quotation:

• Does your citation include the author, year, and page number (or alternative)?

• For parenthetical citations, are there commas between the author and year and between the year and page number? Sentence "quotation" (Author, year, p. 20).

• For narrative citations, does the page number appear in parentheses after the quotation? Author (year) "quotation" (p. 20).

• For all in-text citations in relation to the reference list: 

• Do spellings of author names in the text match spellings in the reference list?

• Are author names abbreviated correctly from reference list entries (e.g., first author plus “et al.” for three or more authors, abbreviations for group authors as appropriate)? 

• Do publication years in the text match the years in the reference list?

• Does each in-text citation match only one reference list entry?

• For all reference list entries:

• Are all works in the reference list cited in the text? For any uncited works, either cite them in the text or remove the entries from the reference list.
  

Why use in-text citations? 

An in-text citation points the reader to your reference list, often called a reference citation. 

Rules of the Reference Page

A reference page lists all of the citations you used in your paper. These references contain more detailed information about the sources you cited, such as the title and publisher. This information is necessary so a reader can find or retrieve the complete article, book, or document from which the citations are found.

The following resources and the sample show how to create a reference page in an APA document.

Basic Principles of Reference List Entries 

(American Psychological Association, 2019b, 2019a)

A reference list entry generally has four elements: the author, date, title, and source. Each element answers a question:

• Author: Who is responsible for this work? May be an individual, group, or organization.
  Example: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C.

• Date: When was this work published?
  Examples: (2020). (2020, August 26). (2022, July).

• Title: What is this work called? Use the title of the article or chapter, using sentence case without capitalizing each word.
  Example: Parks build healthy communities: Success stories.

• Source: Where can I retrieve this work? Use italics for a journal or book title, and include DOI. For a website, give the title and URL.
  Example: National Recreation and Park Association. https://www.nrpa.org

Remember to use both in-text citations and a reference page at the end of your paper. Follow the sources above to cite your sources correctly in this week's application and Term Paper assignments.

American Psychological Association. (2020). In-Text Citation Checklist, APA Style 7th Edition. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/in-text-citation-checklist.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2019a, September). Basic Principles of Reference List Entries. American Psychological Association. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/basic-principles

American Psychological Association. (2019b, September). Elements of Reference List Entries. American Psychological Association. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/elements-list-entry