How to use APA Citation in Research Writing

For those familiar with MLA citation, the APA (American Psychological Association) style of writing research papers should be a breeze to master. Indeed, the two are quite similar, with a few important differences. For those unfamiliar with any form of citation in research writing, let this serve as a guide as you complete your work in the disciplines of psychology, sociology or other social sciences where the APA format is typically used.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Use parenthetical citation. Cite your resources directly after their use when working in APA citation. In some cases, this may be at the end of a block quote, while in others this may be at the end of a paraphrased section of text. Either way, the information that goes into the parenthetical citation remains the same. It is the author’s name, followed by a comma, and the page number where the reference was found, written as "(Bukowski, p. 99)." In cases where you have used more than one work by an author in one paper, you should also include the date when the work was published, so that your reference can be easily found by an interested reader: "(Bukowski 1971, p. 99)."In the case of an Internet resource, you will obviously not have a page number to work with. In this case, you should use the author, date of the publication and paragraph numbers where available. If you do not see a date, use “n.d.” for “no date” after the author’s name, or after the title if there is no author.

2. Punctuate appropriately. Always place your parenthetical citation just before the punctuation mark that denotes the end of the clause where your reference is located. This means that the citation comes before the period, or the comma or semicolon or whatever other punctuation mark ends the idea.

3. Create a reference page. Title the page that lists your references as “References,” not "Works Cited" or "Bibliography" like you might in other citation formats. This title should appear at the top center of the page, which is also the last page of your paper. Your references should be listed alphabetically by the first word of each citation, which will usually be the author’s name, or the title of the work if there is no author’s name. The entire page should be double-spaced, with no extra spaces between references, bullet points or numbering. If a reference takes up more than one line, each subsequent line should be indented. Book and journal titles should be either italicized or underlined. However, titles of articles or chapters should not be italicized or even in quotation marks, but written in plain text. Don’t include pagination for a citation unless it is for a chapter in a book or an article from a periodical. If you don’t know the precise page range, it can be written as: "pp. 19+."

Tips & Warnings

• Double-check that every source that you cite in the paper is included on the reference page. Leaving them out can cost you credibility and readership.

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