Apa Style

American Psychological Association (APA) Style

Why do we quote sources?Provides background informationExplains terms or conceptsSupports claimLends authority to argumentCounters objections

“Quoted material goes inside quotes”

Introduce source with signal phrase and year. Follow material cited by a page number in

parenthesis. List the quoted material in a reference page

at the end of the report.

Asimov (2003) wrote, “Adam Sandler does not know about water” (p. 45).

Note the past tense verb in APA.

Use brackets to insert your own words into quoted material (in either style).

According to Hawking (2013), “It [the universe] no longer seems to follow my former string theory” (p. 45).

To indicate a misspelling in the quote, insert [sic] with brackets after the error. (Latin: sic erat scriptum, "thus was it written“)

Avoid dropping quotes into the essay.

Some experts argue that water will be the catalyst for the next world war. The quote said, “Countries should act now to begin a network that will provide support for countries who feel the effects of drought first” (Smith, 2104, p. 45).

In good academic writing, writers introduce the credentials of the source in the signal phrase.

U.S. EPA President Adam Sandler (2004) asserted, “Countries should act now to begin a network that will provide support for countries who feel the effects of drought first” (p. 24).

In his bestseller How to Manage Anger, actor Mel Gibson (2012) noted, “Anger was my real issue. Drinking was only a coping mechanism” (p. 45).

Use commas to introduce a complete sentence.

Sandler (2004) asserted, “Countries should act now to begin a network that will provide support for countries who feel the effects of drought first” (p. 24).

In his bestseller How to Manage Anger, Gibson

(2012) noted, “Anger was my real issue. Drinking was only a coping mechanism” (p. 45).

For quotations longer than 40 words, indent the quotation five spaces, and double-space within the quotation.

See handout for more details.

When quoting clauses or phrases, they must flow as a sentence. Note that there is no comma in the examples.

Sandler (2004) noted that “a network [would] provide support for countries who feel the effects of drought first” (p. 24).

Gibson (2012) explained that “only when I drank could I cope with the stress of stardom” (p. 45).

Author who has been previously named in a signal phrase:

“Companies can monitor employees’ keystrokes without legal penalty, but they may have to combat low morale as a result” (Lane, 2006, p. 12).

Many Internet sources lack page numbers. Introduce the adequate information in the signal phrase:

APA: As an online article in Science Daily indicates, “the Internet ranked as the top choice among employees for ways of wasting time on the job” (Martinez, 2003, para. 4).

Kaster and Norton (2001) argued that “employee monitoring is a dependable, capable, and very affordable process of recording all employee activity at work” (p. 2).

ORAccording to the authors, “employee monitoring is a dependable, capable, and very affordable process of recording all employee activity at work” (Kaster & Norton, 2011, p. 2).

A U.S. EPA survey (2001) noted, “Employee monitoring is a dependable, capable, and very affordable process of recording all employee activity at work” (p. 2).

Indirect source:

According to actor Bill Murray, playing a character who is masquerading as a zombie is “about as much fun as playing an actual zombie” (as cited in Coleman, 2013, p. 2).

Your original source, Coleman, is listed on your reference page.

The ellipses:

According to Bill Murray, playing a character who is masquerading as a zombie is “not only the highlight of my career, but [. . .] about as much fun as playing an actual zombie” (as cited in Coleman, 2013, p. 2).

This allows the writer to leave out the boring part.

Alphabetize just like in MLA style.

Use authors’ last names.

Use hanging indention.

Double space.

If no doi (digital object identifier), use the URL.Howard, K. R. (2007). Childhood overweight: Parental perceptions and readiness for change. The Journal of School Nursing, 23, 73-79. Retrieved from http://jsn. sage pub.com/

References

Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains.

New York: NY. W.W. Norton.

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/res5e_ch09_s1-0001.html

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/03/

http://www.apastyle.org/learn/tutorials/index.aspx (free tutorial)

Frequently Asked Questions About APA Style®