This document provides guidelines for citing sources and referencing material according to APA style. It defines plagiarism and the importance of referencing, and outlines how to properly cite sources in both the text and in a reference list, including for electronic sources. The document also discusses referencing principles, in-text citations, reference list formatting, and citing sources without full information.

1. APA Citations
and
Referencing

2. Lesson Outline
 Understand the concept of plagiarism and how to avoid it.
 Understand the purpose of using a referencing system.
 Understand what reference information to identify and how to
correctly implement it into a text.
 Understand how to write a list of references.

3. Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s words, ideas, research and/or work as
your own.
• Can be intentional, as when a student copies another student’s work or copies context
from another source.
• Can sometimes be unintentional, as when students use a writer’s words or ideas
proper acknowledgement or simply copy something that has been published without
adding anything of their own.
• Is regarded as a form of cheating; therefore, it is treated very seriously by teachers and
examiners.
• In order to avoid plagiarism, you must distinguish between your own words and words that
you are summarizing or quoting from a source.

4. What is the purpose of referencing?
For the author of the original source
 It is a courtesy to those whose
work you have used or drawn
upon to give them proper
acknowledgement.
For the reader
 It provides transparency about
where your ideas and evidence
were drawn from.
 It enables your reader to find the
source quickly and easily.
 Readers can go to your source to
check accuracy of your use or
interpretation.
The advantages to you
 It strengthens your argument if it is well
researched and draws on the authority of
reputable sources.
 You will be better able to recall where your
ideas come from, either if you wish to use
those sources in the future, or if the
integrity of your work were to be
questioned.
 As a student, there is the added advantage
of demonstrating that you have engaged in
the background reading, as expected.
 For students, it is a convention that you are
required to follow or there are severe
penalties.

5. Referencing
You don’t reference...
 Common knowledge (names, dates, and
well established facts)
 Conversations with friends and students,
unless these are formally conducted as
part of an agreed research methodology.
 Other students’ essays or academic work,
as you should not use these for your own
work.
It is not necessary to memorize ALL of the APA
Guidelines, but it is necessary to accurately
follow them!
Referencing simply comes down to following a
specific set of guidelines, which in your case is
APA Style. The APA website provides
information on how to reference sources
(www.apastyle.org).
APA (American Psychological
Association)
social sciences
Chicago Manual of Style history, economics
Bluebook law
MLA (Modern Language Association) humanities, languages
ACS (American Chemical Society) chemistry
Harvard higher education

6. Referencing
Two aspects involved in referencing:
In-text citations
• How you reference sources within the text of your
assignment
Reference list
• The list of references mentioned in the text
• This goes at the end of your assignment

7. In-text Citations
General Principle
Note the author’s family name or names and year of publication
Examples:
Sutton (2000) noted that …
The research showed that … (Sutton, 2000).
Marshall and Rowland (1993) found that …
The research suggested that … (Marshall & Rowland, 1993).

8. Guide to Authors’ Surnames
• citation: Eden, date
• reference: Eden, L.
Lorraine Eden
• citation: Guler, date
• reference: Guler, I.
Isin Guler
• citation: Schulze-Bentrop, date
• reference: Schulze-Bentrop, C.
Conrad Schulze-Bentrop
• citation: van Witteloostuijn,
date
• reference: van Witteloostuijn, A.
Arjen van
Witteloostuijn
• citation: Senbet, date
• reference: Senbet, L.W.
Lemma W. Senbet
• citation: Chen, date
• reference: Chen, J.
Jin Chen
• citation: Kamal Nor, date
• reference: Kamal Nor, N.
Norazlin Kamal Nor
• citation: Kuar, date
• reference: Kuar, S.
Sarjit Kaur

9. Three to Five Authors
 List all the authors when they are first mentioned
Jones, Smith, Sutton, Gregory, and Lock (2011) stated …
The research showed that … (Jones, Smith, Sutton, Gregory, & Lock, 2011).
 For subsequent citations, et al. can be used
Jones et al. (2011) mentioned that…
The research found … (Jones et al., 2011).
 Use et al. even for the first citation if 6 or more authors

10. Organizations
 State the full name and abbreviation for first citation
 State only abbreviation for subsequent citations
First citation:
The British Psychological Society (BPS, 2011) said …
They note that … (British Psychological Society [BPS], 2011).
Subsequent citations:
The BPS (2011) said …
They note that … (BPS, 2011).

11. Missing information
 Author is missing
Use the title of the publication in italics, or
title of the article within quotation marks
 Date is missing
Use n.d. meaning no date e.g. Smith (n.d.)
 Author and date is missing
Use title and n.d.

12. Additional Points
 Two or more authors in brackets
List alphabetically and divide by semi-colon
(Jones, 2000; Sutton, 2001)
 Two authors with same family name
Add the initial to distinguish them
P. Jones (2000) and J. Jones (2001)
 Same author with two publications in the same year
Add suffix a and b to distinguish them
Jones (2001a) and Jones (2001b)

13. Primary vs. Secondary Sources
 Primary Source is a source you have actually read
 Secondary Source is a source you read about in another source and
have not read the original
How to show secondary sources:
Locke (1977, as cited in Sutton, 2000, p. 27) stated that…
The research showed that …. (Locke, 1977, as cited in Sutton, 2000, p. 27).
Only list Sutton (2000) in the Reference list

14. Reference List
 Must list all sources mentioned in text
 Must be alphabetical
 Format must be consistent – e.g. commas, full stops, italics, capital letters
 Must follow APA guidelines

15. Citing Electronic Sources
Template
Author, A. (date). Title of document [Format description].
Retrieved month day, year, from http://xxxxxxxxx
Lee, C. (2011). Writing in-text citations in APA style [Blog
post]. Retrieved from
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/01/writing-in-text-
citations-in-apa-style.html

16. Citing Electronic Sources
 Online journal
Marsh, E. J., & Sink, H. E. (2010). Access to handouts of
presentation slides during lecture: Consequences for
learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24, 691–706.
Retrieved on 24 April 2014 from
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ 10.1002/acp.1579/full
 Online newspaper
Miwil, O. (2012, June 23). Recycling boxes misused as
garbage bins. New Straits Times. Retrieved on 20 April 2014
from http://www.nst.com.my/streets/ central/recycling-
boxes-misused-as-garbage-bins-1.97311

17. How to cite sources
 Much of your research will likely come from internet sources.
 Cite a commercial document from a website in the same way as a printed
document i.e. author and date.
 Missing information is shown in same way as a printed source
Author and date: (Jones, 2007)
Author, no date: (Smith, n.d.)
No author (title of article), date: (The Joy of Vietnamese Life, 1998)
No author (title of article), no date: (The Rocky Road to Marriage, n.d.)

18. Practice
 Textbook pp. 125-130