Skip to Main Content

Citation & Documentation

Direct Quotations & Paraphrasing

In-Text Citations

APA Style uses parenthetical, author-date citations. After a quote, add parentheses containing the author's name, the year of publication, and the page number of the work.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Seuss, 2007, pp. 7-8).

If you use more than one work by the same author, use the letters a, b, etc., after the year.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Seuss, 2007a, pp. 7-8).

If more than one author has the same last name, add their first initial.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (D. Seuss, 2007, pp. 7-8).

If two or more authors wrote the work, see the chart below.

If using the author's name in your text, do not include it in the parentheses.

Example: In his scholarly study, Dr. Seuss observed that "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (2007, pp. 7-8).
Example: In 2007, Dr. Seuss suggested that "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (pp. 7-8).

If no author name is available, use the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title). Use quotation marks around titles of articles or web pages and italicize titles of books, periodicals, etc.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Fox in Socks, 2007).

If no pagination information is available, use paragraph numbers instead.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Seuss, 2007, para. 5).

Note: When paraphrasing or mentioning another work, it is helpful to still provide pagination information if the source text is long or difficult, or if it would help the reader find the text being paraphrased.

Indirect Quotes

Indirect Quotes Format

Indirect quote: When you want to cite a quote you found in a work that was quoted from someone else’s work.

Primary source: The source in which the quote was originally from.

Secondary source:  The source that cited a quote from another work.

 

Example:

Primary source: Sipher 1993

Secondary source: Jones 2005

 

In-text Citation Formats:

Narrative citation

According to Sipher (1993), "schools have failed their primary duty of education" (as cited in Jones, 2005, p.54). 

Parenthetical citations

 Some scholars believe that "schools have failed their primary duty of education" (Sipher, 1993, as cited in Jones, 2005, p.54). 

 

Reference List

In the reference list you would include the citation of the secondary source and not the primary source, unless you are able to find the primary source of the quote. If you find the primary source, you can include that in your reference list.

Capitalization in Foreign Language Titles

When adding a title that is in a foreign language, follow these basic rules:

For German, capitalize the first word and all nouns.

For French, capitalize THROUGH the first noun in the title.

For Italian and other languages, capitalize just the first word.

(NOTE: Always capitalize all proper nouns.)

Non-English Reference Books

When citing a non-English reference work, use the original title followed by the English translation of the title in brackets.

Sample Reference:

Kluge, F. (2002). Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological dictionary of the German language] (24th ed.). de Gruyter.