In-Text Citations

APA In-Text Citations

• Author-date method

• If you are directly quoting a work, you need to include the author, publication year, and also the number of the page from which you are quoting. Use the term “p.” for one page and “pp.” if the quote spans multiple pages

Signal Phrase

To introduce a quotation or begin paraphrasing within the text of the sentence

In-Text Citations with a Signal Phrase

• Contains the author's last name followed by the publication date in parentheses (If using signal phrase, include page number)

• Examples:

  • Research by Newsom (2004) suggests "Sailor Moon's greatest powers are eventually revealed as related to her capacity to love, and through that love to heal" (p. 10).

  • Newsom (2004) finds that Sailor Moon "illustrates the quality of love very plainly throughout the anime" (pp. 67-68).

  • According to Newsom (2004), Sailor Moon's power is derived from her emotional capacity.

In-Text Citations without a Signal Phrase

• If you don't use a signal phrase to introduce a quote or begin paraphrasing within the text of a sentence, you will need to place the author name, publication date, and, if applicable, the page number in parentheses directly after the quote or paraphrased content.

• Examples:

  • Sailor Moon is often portrayed crying, which supports the argument that emotions are central to her character (Newsom, 2004)

  • She states, “Sailor Moon's greatest powers are eventually revealed as related to her capacity to love, and through that love to heal" (Newsom, 2004, p. 10), and she goes on to illustrate how the character's love is physically expressed.

In-Text Citations for Sources with 2 Authors

• Place "and" between authors' last names when providing them in the text of your sentence with a signal phrase.

  • Example: Langford and Speight (2015) state…

• Place "&" between authors' last names when providing them in parentheses after the quote or paraphrased content.

  • Example: ...(Langford & Speight, 2015)

In-Text Citations for Sources with More Than Two Authors

• Place "et al." after the first author's last name when providing it in the text of your sentence with a signal phrase.

  • Example: Ince et al. (2017) claim...

• Place "et al." after the first author's last name when providing it in parentheses after the quote or paraphrased content.

  • Example: ...(Ince et al., 2017)

In-Text Citation With More Than One Work

• Place the citations in alphabetical order of the first author and separate the citations with semicolons.

• Example: Educational Psychology is the most researched field involving human learning (Olson, 2019; Sterling & Cooper, 2020; Holloway & Hofstadt, 2000).

In-Text Citation if One Work is the Most Directly Relevant

• Place the most relevant citation first, then insert a phrase such as “see also” and the other works

• Example: Educational Psychology does not support learning styles (Palmer, 2020; see also Horne, 1999; Hayward, 1993)

In-Text Citations for Indirect Sources

• If you want to cite a source (an original source) that was cited in another source (a secondary source), name the original source author(s) in the text as you would with a signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the author, date, and page number in your parenthetical citation, preceded by the words “as cited in.”

• Example: As John Dewey said, “Action is the test of comprehension. This is simply another way of saying that learning by doing is a better way to learn than by listening” (as cited in Waks, 2011, p.194).

In-Text Citations for Sources without Page Numbers

• If the source you are quoting doesn't have page numbers, provide some other piece of information that will help readers locate the quote.

• You can use chapter names or numbers, heading or section names, paragraph numbers, table numbers, verse numbers, etc.

• Examples:

  • "In E.T., Spielberg made a truly personal film, an almost autobiographical trip back into his own childhood memories" (Breihan, 2020, para. 6).

  • To prevent kidney failure, patients should “get active” and “quit smoking” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017, “What Can You Do” section).