APA Formatting: How Do I: Write In-Text Citations

This resource can help you with questions you may have around APA; this document will show you have to properly format in-text citations, form block quotes, structure a cover page, etc. Think of it as your APA "cheat sheet"!

What Are In-Text Citations?

Here is some information you should know when formatting your in-text citations:

 

When writing in-text citations, the format that is always followed in APA is:

 

(Author’s Last name, Year of Publication, p. Number)   <---   This is for citing one page

(Author’s Last Name, Year of Publication, pp. Number)   <---   This is for citing multiple pages

(Author’s Last Name, Year of Publication)   <---   This is for citing when there is no page number

(Author’s Last Name, n.d., pp. Number)   <---   This is for citing when there is no publication date

 

Some guidelines to follow are:

 

  • Every source that you cite within your writing, also needs to be on your reference list or bibliography at the end

 

  • If you are referencing just an idea from another author or source, but not directly quoting it, then you only need to cite the author’s last name and year of publication. This also is for when you are referencing an entire book, article, journal, etc.

 

  • If you are using direct quotes, then you must cite the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page(s) quoted

 

  • When using “et al.,” in your citation, only the “al” has a period that follows it, and the comma comes after the period

 

  • When citing, the period will always come at the end of the citation, even when you are quoting a passage

 

  • If you are quoting a written text and there are no page numbers to attach to your citation, you can reference the chapter or paragraph number instead

 

  • If there is no date of publication, the you will put “n.d.” in place of the year in your citation

 

  • If you have two authors that have the same last name, the way you create differentiation would be by including the first initial of each author. An example, (L. Smith, 2018, p.45) and (R. Smith, 2020, pp. 145-147)

 

  • According to APA, proper nouns need to be capitalized; with author names, though, you need to write their name as the author themselves present it

 

  • Do not forget to cite evidence and information that is not fully yours; failure to do so results in plagiarism, which have significant consequences attached to it

APA In-Text Citations Quick Look

Number of Authors In-Text Citation Format

 

One Author

First Time:

 

Every Time After That:

(Author's Last Name, Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

(Author's Last Name, Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

Two Authors

First Time:

 

Every Time After That:

(Author 1 & Author 2, Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

(Author 1 & Author 2, Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

Three - Five Authors

First Time:

 

Every Time After That:

(Author 1, Author 2 & Author 3, Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

(Author 1 et al., Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

Six Authors

First Time:

 

Every Time After That:

(Author 1 et al., Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

(Author 1 et al., Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

No Author

First Time:

 

Every Time After That:

("Title of the Work," Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

("Title of the Work," Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

Organization (Has an Acronym or Abbreviation)

First Time:

 

Every Time After That:

(Full Name [Abbreviation], Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

(Abbreviation, Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

Organization (No Acronym or Abbreviation) 

First Time:

 

Every Time After That:

(Full Name, Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

(Full Name, Year of Publication, p. Number)

 

Brain Food : APA Guidelines in Writing

  • Last Updated: Mar 8, 2023 12:38 PM
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Subjects: Academic Success