This document provides guidance on using APA internal citation style. It explains that internal citations, also called parenthetical citations, are used to give credit to authors for their ideas and indicate where information comes from. The document discusses paraphrasing versus directly quoting and provides examples of citing sources with different numbers of authors. It also covers how to format citations when sources are missing information like dates or author names. Lastly, it reviews the components and order of a references list.

1. Stephanie Herfel
User Services Librarian
SUNY Orange, Newburgh Campus
APA Internal Citation
Explained

2. Internal Citation (in-text citation)
also called Parenthetical Citation =
Citing your sources within your paper
Why?
 To tell the reader where the information
comes from (reliable?)
 To give credit to the author
or authors for their ideas

3. The “P” Word
“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.”
― Stephen Wright, NYC novelist, professor at Princeton & Brown
“Plagiarism has been around far longer than the Internet. In fact, I had a poem
published in 'Seventeen' magazine when I was 15 years old. About a year later, I was
informed that there was a girl who used that same poem to win a statewide poetry
competition in Alabama. It took months for people to put together that this had
happened.”
― Megan McCafferty, young adult fiction novelist
(Jessica Darling series)

4. “To Cite or Not to Cite…?”
DO NOT CITE
Your own experiences, memories,
thoughts, observations, and
opinions.
CITE any idea that doesn’t come from your own head (even if you
put someone else’s ideas into your own words).
DO NOT CITE
Common knowledge- something the average person knows such as:
The world is round, and a year has 365 days.
The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.

5. Paraphrasing and Examples
Yanovski and Jones (2008) explained that sibutramine suppresses
appetite by blocking the reuptake of the neurotransmitters serotonin
and norepinephrine in the brain.
Sibutramine suppresses appetite by blocking the reuptake of the
neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain (Yanovski
& Jones, 2008).
Paraphrasing is sometimes referred
as indirect quoting. You read the
author’s ideas and then put them into
your own words.

6. No Page Numbers
When an electronic source has no page number, include whatever
information (paragraph number or article headings or both) that
would be helpful in locating the quote.
Example:
(Hall, 2008, para. 5).
(Weight-Loss Drugs section, para. 6).

7. Page Numbers?
Direct quotation with author’s name as part of the narrative:
According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially
when it was their first time" (p. 199).
Direct quotation with parenthetical citation:
Jones (1998) found that "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199).
Indirect quotation:
APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998).
ONLY WHEN DIRECT QUOTING (USING QUOTATION MARKS)

8. Direct Quoting and Examples
Direct quotation with author’s name as part of the narrative:
As researchers Depp and Stamos (2012) have explained, "Most college students are
pressed for time, under a lot of stress, and can find themselves eating on the go." (p.
8).
Depp and Stamos (2012) found that “most college students are pressed for time, under
a lot of stress, and can find themselves eating on the go.” (p. 8).
According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (2004), “experts have pointed to
a range of potential contributors to the rise in childhood obesity that are unrelated to
media” (p. 1).
OR
Direct quotation with author, date, and page number at the end:
Confusing this issue is the overlapping nature of roles in palliative care, whereby
“medical needs are met by those in the medical disciplines; nonmedical needs may be
addressed by anyone on the team” (Csikai & Chaitin, 2006, p. 112).

9. No Date
When no date is known, use “n.d.” for “no date.”
Example:
(Hall, n.d.).

10. Unknown Author
If no author is named in the source, then introduce the source
with the name of the article or put the first words of the title of
the article in parenthesis. Keep in mind that an organization can
be an author (example: American Heart Association).
Example:
(“Exercise,” 2012).
In the article “Exercise Changes Fat and Muscle Cells,”
the author discusses how regular exercise can change our genes
(2012).
However, REMEMBER, sources that are lacking authors’ names
and dates may not be the best source of information.

11. Two Authors
A Work by Two Authors: Name both authors in the signal
phrase or in the parentheses each time you cite the work.
Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the
text and use the ampersand in the parentheses.
Research by Wegener and Petty (1994) supports...
(Wegener & Petty, 1994)

12. Three to Five Authors
A Work by Three to Five Authors: List all the authors in the
“signal phrase” or in parentheses the first time you cite the
source.
(Kernis, Cornell, Sun, Berry, & Harlow, 1993)
In subsequent citations, only use the first author's last name
followed by "et al." in the signal phrase or in parentheses.
(Kernis et al., 1993)

13. Six or More Authors
Six or More Authors: Use the first author's name followed by
et al. in the signal phrase or in parentheses.
Harris et al. (2001) argued...
(Harris et al., 2001)
Anyone know what et al. means?
et al. (from the Latin et alii) means "and others."

14. The References Page
1. Do you have a header and page number (both on the same line)?
2. Do you center the word References at the top of your list? (Only the first letter is capitalized.)
3. Are your references double-spaced?
4. Are your references in alphabetical order by the author’s last name?
5. Is each reference indented in the second and subsequent lines?
6. Do you include at least 7 “college level” sources?
7. Is each citation in your paper included in your reference list?
8. Is each reference on your reference list cited in your paper?
9. Material that you read about in a secondary source, i.e., (Skinner, 1988, as cited inTharp, 2002),
should not be in the reference list.Tharp (1999) would be included, Skinner (1988) would not.
10. Do you useAPA reference style consistently and compulsively?
Did you check it to the pink sheet?

15. References
APA Style Checklist. (2008). Clarion University of Pennsylvania.
Retrieved from http://www.clarion.edu/202253/
Hacker, D. & Sommers, N. (2011). A writer’s reference, 7th ed.
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Mischak, E. (2010). APA citation style. Retrieved from Chapman
University, Leatherby Libraries: http://www1.chapman.edu/
library/reference/guides/APA-Style.pdf
Paiz, J. M. et al. APA general format. (2013, March 1). Purdue Online
Writing Lab (OWL). Retrieved from https://owl.english.
purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/1/