APA Citations Explained
When we're writing a paper, giving a speech, or preparing a presentation, we must make it clear what information is our own ideas and what information comes from other sources. We use citations for this purpose.
There are two places citations are used: in the text of the paper or presentation and in a References page at then end of the paper or presentation. (Note: In a speech, we verbally state our source in brief format, and then we include a References list with the outline submitted to the instructor.)
The in-text citation (also called a parenthetical citation) is a short visual cue in the paper or presentation that lets the reader know they will find a fuller citation in the References page at the end. The in-text citation includes the author(s) and the year the information was produced. If we use a direct quotation, we also include the page number(s) if page numbers are available. (Web pages do not have page numbers so we can either not include a page number at all or use a paragraph number.)
The longer citation in the References page is called a bibliographic citation and it tells us all of the necessary information to find that source, should we want to. Bibliographic citations in APA style always start with an author's (or creator's) last name, unless there is no author and then the citation starts with the title of the work we're citing. The References page goes at the end of our research paper, project, or presentation, and it includes a detailed list of sources we used in our paper.
The example below shows what an APA in-text citation looks like, and what the corresponding References page bibliographic citation looks like. Notice that the in-text citation must include the same author information as the longer bibliographic citation in the References list so that our reader can easily find it.
"PSYC 220: Costa, P.: Citing in APA style" Links to an external site. by Tacoma Community College Library Links to an external site. is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Links to an external site.