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How to reference in-text with APA Style

General pattern of in-text referencing

 

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Pattern of in-text

In the APA System, at the point in your assignment that you mention another writer's work, it must be identified by giving the author's surname and the year of publication (in-text reference ) as well as putting the full bibliographic details in the bibliography at the end of your work.

In-text referencing has a pattern -    (Author, date).
Editors can be used instead of authors and if you have no author or editor, then use as much of the title of the work as you need for someone to find it in the bibliography.

1. When the author's name occurs naturally as part of the sentence, place the year of publication in parentheses after the name.

In her well-known study, Shaw (1998) states that …
Within the same paragraph, there is no need to include the year for subsequent references to a study.

2. When the name is not in the text, place the surname and year in parentheses at an appropriate point (often best placed at the end of a sentence)

A recent study has shown that certain medications can assist in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (Murrell, 1999).

Note: points 1 and 2 apply to one or more authors.

3. When there are two authors, cite both authors every time the reference occurs in the text.

(Slater & Johnson, 1996)
Johnson and Slater (1996) theorised that …

4. When there are three, four or five authors, cite all authors the first time, then for subsequent citations, only use the surname of the first author followed by 'et al.' .

(Blackett, George & Mundy, 1995)
Blackett et al. (1995) found that ….

5. When six or more authors, cite only the surname of the first author, followed by 'et al.'. (In the Reference List or Bibliography you must provide the surname and initials for each author).

(Kosslyn et al. 1994)

6. When there is no author, items should be cited using the title. If it is the title of a chapter or article, use double quotation marks around the title. If it is the title of a book, web page, report, etc. underline the title
Do NOT use Anon. or Anonymous.

("Study Finds", 1992)
Oxford dictionary for scientific writers and editors (1991) defines …

7. When there is no publication date, use n.d. for no date.

(Rankin, n.d.)
Rankin (n.d.) disagreed with …

8. Always give page numbers for direct quotations.

Page numbers should always appear at the end of the quotation.

"The number of students in English universities rose significantly between 1900 and 1935" (Dyehouse, 2001, p. 817).

OR

Dyehouse (2001) points out this caused "considerable anxiety about the "overproduction" of graduates in a hostile labour market by the later 1930s," (p. 817).

OR

If you are citing one writer within another's work…

"Always use the middle of the bow, never play near the point or heel" (Tartini, as cited by Seletsky, 2004, p. 418).

Tartini (as cited in Seletsky, 2004)  says of traditional bows for musical instruments, "Always use the middle of the bow, never play near the point or heel" (p. 418).

 

9. When referring to a source quoted in another work, cite both in the text.

(James cited in Randall, 1989)
The results of a study by James (as cited in Randall, 1989) demonstrate that …

(You will only list the work by Randall in your bibliography)

10. When there is more than one work by the same author published in the same year they should be distinguished from each other by attaching a lower case letter to the publication date.

(Robinson, 1992a; Robinson, 1992b)

11. When more than one work is cited, separate the details with semi-colons.

(Braddon, 1995; Harvey, 1993)
Harvey (1993) and Braddon (1995) showed that .

Note: if you are citing more than one work in parentheses - put the references in alphabetical order, not date order.

If you write about the same work several times in one paragraph, it is often sufficient to write the in-text reference, the first time you mention the work and then at the end of the paragraph, instead of at the end of each sentence.

12. Images, figures, poems - any work within a work

 In your text, you need to cite the image, figure, poem etc by name/title but you only reference the work it came from. In the bibliography, you only reference the work that the image, poem etc came from.

Similarly, an image or figure in a book or journal article would be cited in your text with the source information and only the source details used in the bibliography.

Image in a journal article (also applies to advertisements)
A reference to an image or an advertisement in a journal article can simply be referenced in-text by describing the image and citing the page number -

"The image 'Earthbound Cheetahs' (Forshaw 2005, p 43) is particularly striking…." and then include the article's details in the bibliography eg
Forshaw, R (2005) 'Digital image manipulation the hard way', Design Graphics,  no. 119, pp. 42-51

A work of art reproduced in a book
In the text of your assignment identify the art work:

"The painting 'Mona Lisa' (Gombrich 1968, p. 203)…"
In the bibliography, however, you would only put the details of the book you used - ie Gombrich.

13. Personal letters, conversations, telephone communications, emails, etc

Information you have personally received and which cannot reasonably be retrieved, such as personal conversations, private letters, emails, etc are not referenced in the bibliography but are mentioned with their details in the body of your text. (Some sources recommend that you treat email discussion postings as personal communications, others suggest referencing them distinctly.)

"Peter Jackson (telephone conversation, July 1, 1997) confirmed that he wanted to film Lord of the Rings as 3 separate films so that….."   No reference in the bibliography

Treat bulletin board or email discussion list contributions in a similar way.

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