This document is a guide on citing sources in APA style, based on the 6th edition of the APA Publication Manual. It covers in-text citations, formatting the reference list, and provides guidance on writing style, language sensitivity, and citation examples for various source types. Additionally, it emphasizes avoiding biased language and includes formatting rules for academic papers.

1. APA Style Citation Guide
This handout is based on the 6th edition of the Publication Man
ual of the American Psychological
Association (APA), but is not a comprehensive guide. For all ru
les and requirements of APA citations,
please consult the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association.
APA requires that information be cited in 2 different ways—
within the text and in a reference list at the
end of the paper. The reference list should be on a new page, do
uble spaced, and use the hanging
indent method (all lines after the first one are indented). See al
so:
‐ Publication Manual of the American Psychological Associatio
n, 6th ed. Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association, 2010.
‐ Concise Rules of APA Style, 6th ed. Washington, DC: Americ
an Psychological Association, 2010.
CITATIONS IN THE TEXT:
APA uses the author‐date method of citation. The last name of t
he author and the date of publication
are inserted in the text in the appropriate place.
When referencing or summarizing a source, provide the author a
nd year. When quoting or summarizing
a particular passage, include the specific page or paragraph num
ber, as well.
When quoting in your paper, if a direct quote is less than 40 wo

2. rds, incorporate it into your text and use
quotation marks. If a direct quote is more than 40 words, make t
he quotation a free‐standing indented
block of text and DO NOT use quotation marks.
One work by one author:
• In one developmental study (Smith, 1990), children learned...
OR
• In the study by Smith (1990), primary school children...
OR
• In 1990, Smith’s study of primary school children…
Works by multiple authors:
When a work has 2 authors cite both names every time you refer
ence the work in the text. When a work
has three to five authors cite all the author names the first time t
he reference occurs and then
subsequently include only the first author followed by et al. For
6 or more authors, cite only the name of
the first author followed by et al. and the year. For example:
•
First citation: Masserton, Slonowski, and Slowinski (1989) state
that...
• Subsequent citations: Masserton et al. (1989) state that...
Works by no identified author:
When a resource has no named author, cite the first few words o
f the reference entry (usually the title).
Use double quotation marks around the title of an article, chapte
r, or Web page. Italicize the title of a

3. periodical, book, brochure, or report. For example:
•
The site seemed to indicate support for homeopathic drugs (“Me
dical Miracles,” 2009).
•
The brochure argues for homeschooling (Education Reform, 200
7).
•
Treat reference to legal materials such as court cases, statutes, a
nd legislation like works
with no author.
Two or more works in the same parenthetical citation:
Citations of two or more works in the same parentheses should
be listed in the order they appear in the
reference list (i.e., alphabetically, then chronologically).
•
Several studies (Jones & Powell, 1993; Peterson, 1995, 1998; S
mith, 1990) suggest that...
Specific parts of a source
Always give the page number for quotations or to indicate infor
mation from a specific table, chart,
chapter, graph, or page. The word page is abbreviated but not ch
apter. For example:
•

4. The painting was assumed to be by Matisse (Powell, 1989, Chap
ter 6), but later analysis showed
it to be a forgery (Murphy, 1999, p. 85).
If, as in the instance of online material, the source has neither v
isible paragraph nor page numbers, cite
the heading and the number of the paragraph following it. This
allows the reader to locate the text in
the source. For example:
•
The patient wrote that she was unimpressed by the doctor’s beds
ide manner (Smith, 2006,
Hospital Experiences section, para. 2).
CITATIONS IN A REFERENCE LIST:
In general, references should contain the author name, publicati
on date, title, and publication
information. Include the issue number if the journal is paginated
by issue.
For information obtained electronically or online include the D
OI:
DOI ‐ a unique alphanumeric string assigned to identify content
and provide a persistent link to its
location on the internet. The DOI is typically located on the firs
t page of the electronic journal article
near the copyright notice. When a DOI is used in your citation,
no other retrieval information is needed.
Use this format for the DOI in references: doi:xxxxxxx
If no DOI has been assigned to the content, provide the home pa
ge URL of the journal or of the book or
report publisher. Do not insert a hyphen if you need to break a

5. URL across lines; do not add a period
after a URL, to prevent the impression that the period is part of
the URL.
In general, it is not necessary to include database information.
Do not include retrieval dates unless the
source material has changed over time.
Book:
Strunk, W., Jr., & White, E. B. (1979). The guide to everything
and then some more stuff. New
York, NY: Macmillan.
Gregory, G., & Parry, T. (2006). Designing brain‐compatible lea
rning (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Corwin.
Chapter of a Book:
Bergquist, J. M. (1992). German Americans. In J. D. Buenker &
L. A. Ratner (Eds.),
Multiculturalism in the United States: A comparative guide to a
cculturation and ethnicity
(pp. 53‐76). New York, NY: Greenwood.
Journal Article with DOI:
Paivio, A. (1975). Perceptual comparisons through the mind's ey
e. Memory & Cognition, 3, 635‐
647. doi:10.1037/0278‐6133.24.2.225

6. Journal Article without DOI (when DOI is not available):
Becker, L. J., & Seligman, C. (1981). Welcome to the energy cri
sis. Journal of Social Issues, 37, 1‐7.
Hamfi, A. G. (1981). The funny nature of dogs. E‐journal of Ap
plied Psychology, 2, 38‐48.
Retrieved from http://ojs.lib.swin.edu.au/index.php/fdo
Online Newspaper Articles:
Becker, E. (2001, August 27). Prairie farmers reap conservation'
s rewards. The New York Times.
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com
Encyclopedia Articles:
Brislin, R. W. (1984). Cross‐cultural psychology. In R. J. Corsi
ni (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology
(Vol. 1, pp. 319‐327). New York, NY: Wiley.
Developmental genetics. (2005). In Cambridge encyclopedia of
child development. Retrieved
from http://0‐
www.credoreference.com.library.muhlenberg.edu:80/entry/cupc
hilddev/developmenta
l_genetics
Technical and Research Reports (often with corporate authors) :

7. Hershey Foods Corporation. (2001, March 15). 2001 Annual Re
port. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheysannualreport.com/2000/index.htm
Book Reviews:
Dent‐Read, C., & Zukow‐Goldring, P. (2001). Is modeling know
ing? [Review of the book
Models of cognitive development, by K. Richardson]. American
Journal of Psychology, 114, 126‐
133.
NOTE: For articles that have a DOI, see Journal Article with D
OI example.
Data Sets:
Simmons Market Research Bureau. (2000). Simmons national co
nsumer survey [Data file].
New York, NY: Author.
Reprint from Another Source:
• Citation in the text:
(Newton, 1998/1999).
• Reference List Citation:

8. Newton, W. (1999). Return to Mars. In C. Mari (Ed.), Space Ex
ploration (pp. 32‐ 41). New York,
NY: H.W. Wilson. (Reprinted from National Geographic, pp. 2‐
26, August 1998).
APA Style: Avoiding Bias in Language
Sensitivity to labels. A person in a clinical study should be calle
d a "patient," not a "case." Avoid
equating people with their conditions, for example, do not say "
schizophrenics," say "people diagnosed
with schizophrenia." Use the term "sexual orientation," not "sex
ual preference." The phrase "gay men
and lesbians" is currently preferred to the term "homosexuals."
To refer to all people who are not
heterosexual, the manual suggests "lesbians, gay men, and bisex
ual women and men" (see APA, 2001, p.
67).
Do not characterize people as victims (e.g., a "stroke victim"), u
se a descriptive term such as "people
who have had a stroke." Avoid the terms "challenged" and "spec
ial" unless the population referred to
prefers this terminology (e.g., Special Olympics). As a rule, use
the phrase "people with _______" (for
example, "people with AIDS," not AIDS "sufferers" or "victims
").
Avoid gender stereotypes. For example, the manual suggests rep
lacing "An American boy's infatuation
with football" with "An American child's infatuation with footb

9. all" (see APA, p. 66).
•
The term "gender" refers to culture and should be used when ref
erring to men and women as
social groups, as in this example from the Publication Manual: "
sexual orientation rather than
gender accounted for most of the variance in the results; most g
ay men and lesbians were for it,
most heterosexual men and women were against it" (APA, 2001,
p. 63).
•
The term "sex" refers to biology and should be used when biolo
gical distinctions are emphasized,
for example, "sex differences in hormone production."
An ethnic label can be perceived as a slur if not managed correc
tly. For example, persons of
acknowledged Spanish heritage in the New World may prefer C
hicano (Chicana), Hispanic, Latino,
Mexican, Mexican American, and so on. Historically, there are
no "American Indians," only members of
specific nations, tribes, villages, and bands. The term Native A
merican is inclusive of American Indians,
Pacific Islanders, and Alaskan Natives. Specific group names ar
e more informative, such as Hopi or
Lakota.
•
Color. Capitalize Black and White when the words are used as p
roper nouns to refer to social
groups. Do not use color words for other ethnic groups. In racial
references, the manual simply
recommends that we respect current usage. Currently both the te
rms "Black" and "African

10. American" are widely accepted, while "Negro" and "Afro‐Ameri
can" are not. These things
change, so use common sense.
•
Hispanic. The terms Hispanic, Latino, and Chicano are preferre
d by different groups. The safest
procedure is use geographical references; use "Cuban American
" if referring to people from
Cuba.
•
Asian. The term Asian American is preferable to Oriental, and a
gain the manual recommends
being specific about country of origin, when this is known (for
example, Chinese or Vietnamese).
The manual specifies that hyphens should not be used in multiw
ord names such as Asian
American or African American.
•
Indigenous. Some people from northern Canada, Alaska, eastern
Siberia, and Greenland often
(but not always!) prefer Inuk (singular) and Inuit (plural) to "Es
kimo." But some Alaska natives
are non‐Inuit people who prefer to be called Eskimo, while othe
rs are Athabaskans of an entirely
different heritage. Difficulty may be avoided by using geograph
ical references. For example, in
place of "Eskimo" or "Inuit" one could use "indigenous people f
rom northern Canada, northern
Alaska, eastern Siberia, and Greenland."
Age. In referring to age, be specific about age ranges; avoid ope

11. n‐ended definitions like "under 16" or
"over 65." Avoid the term elderly. Older person is preferred. Th
e AMA (American Medical Association)
Manual of Style (1997, p. 263) uses these definitions:
•
Neonates or newborns are persons from birth to 1 month of age.
• Infants are children [sic] aged 1 month to 1 year.
•
Children are persons aged 1 to 12 years. . . . They may also be r
eferred to as boys or girls.
•
Adolescents are persons aged 13 through 17 years; also teenager
s, adolescent boys, or
adolescent girls.
•
Adults are persons over 18 years and are referred to as men or w
omen.
DO NOT use . . . When you can use . . .
ethnic labels (e.g., Hispanic)
geographical labels (e.g., Mexican Americans if from Mexico)
"men" (referring to all adults) "men and women"
"homosexuals" "gay men and lesbians"
"depressives" "people with depression"
•
In general, call people what they want to be called, and do not c
ontrast one group of people

12. with another group called "normal." Write "we compared people
with autism to people without
autism" not "we contrasted autistics to normals."
APA Style: Writing Tips
A. Typing
1. Your papers must be typed or printed on a computer.
2.
Set the typewriter or word processor to double space and keep it
there throughout the entire
manuscript.
3.
Use one inch margins on the left, right, top, and bottom of the p
age. These margins are wide in
order to leave room for reviewer's comments.
4.
Use normal paragraphs in which the first line is indented five ch
aracters for all paragraphs in the
manuscript except the abstract, block quotes, titles and headings
, subheadings, references,
table titles, notes, and figure captions.
5.
Use a 12 point font. In other words, there should be 10 typed ch
aracters per inch.
6. Single space after sentence terminators (i.e., '.', '?', '!').
7.

13. Capitalize the first letter following a colon if the clause followi
ng the colon is a complete
sentence.
8.
Make sure the text is left aligned and not justified. With left ali
gned text, the left margin forms a
straight line and the right margin is ragged. Do not hyphenate (s
plit) words at the end of a line.
9.
Finally, just staple or clip the finished product (do not bother wi
th fancy folders, etc.).
B. Writing in General
1. You must use complete sentences.
2.
The first sentence of a paragraph must be independent (able to s
tand on its own). For example
consider While these studies are important, there is... This sente
nce would be correct in the
middle of a paragraph, but as the first sentence, it should more a
ppropriately read, While
studies of the effects of whatever on whatever else are importan
t, there is...
3. Try not to use slang (e.g., ...put a damper on...).
4. Do not use contractions. That is, instead of it's, use it is.
5.
If you are doubtful about the spelling of a word, do not guess. L
ook up the correct spelling.
Proofread the copy that you submit and do correct minor typogr

14. aphical errors, formatting,
spelling, or even the wording, with a pencil.
C. Style Details in General
1.
Assume you are writing the paper for submission to a scientific
journal.
2.
A lot of the formatting details can be learned by carefully model
ing another APA journal
articleAvoid excessive use of the terms I, me, and my, as well a
s the phrase personally speaking...
3.
Avoid the use of sexist language. For example, consistently refe
rring to a person as
a him or he when it is just as likely for the person to be a she or
a her, is sexist. However,
using (s)heor him/her all of the time can also be awkward. If yo
u phrase it right, you can often
use the word person instead.
4.
Avoid using 'empty words' or words which serve no purpose. Fo
r example, In the Smith (1990)
study it was found that... should read more like Smith (1990) fo
und that...
5.
Generally speaking, use past tense in the abstract, introduction,
and method. Results and
discussion sections can be in the present tense.

15. 6.
Get friends to read it. If they cannot understand it, then it needs
work. If you cannot get a friend
to read it, then try to read it yourself making believe that you ar
e naive.
Write a Response paper in 300ish words and respond
to another student in
approximately 100 words: What is the role of
women in Fup ?
Unsatisfactory Satisfactory Target Exemplary Total
Concept Does not choose one
clear topic/chose
multiple topics
0
Chooses one clear
topic
1
Summary Does not provide

16. developed summary
(e.g., one sentence
definition)
0
Provides summary,
but poor
development and/or
not within succinct
parameters
1
Provides succinct
summary; may be
too broad or too
detailed
2 - 3
Provides succinct
well-developed

17. summary
4
Critique Provides little to no
critique
0
Provides poorly
developed critique
(e.g., list) and/or
seriously conflates
critique with
summary
1
Provides partially
developed critique,
may slightly conflate
critique with
summary

18. 2 - 3
Provides well-
developed thought
provoking critique
4
Application Does not provide
application (e.g., one
sentence mention)
0
Mentions and
application but does
not develop and/or
unclear connection
between concept
and real world
1
Provides partially
developed
application and/or
unclear connection

19. to real world
2 - 3
Provides well-
developed,
accessible application
with clear connection
between the concept
and the real world
4
Future Directions Does not provide any
future directions
0
Mentions future
directions but did not
explain or develop

20. 1
Discusses future
directions, but with
few
details/development,
no development
from readings
2 - 3
Discusses detailed
fully developed
future directions
4
Writing Does not develop
ideas in clear cogent
manner, argument
unclear, ineffective
organization, and/or
multiple grammatical

21. or spelling errors
0
Paragraphs are
organized but not
well connected,
overall organization
of the paper unclear
or illogical, and/or
multiple grammatical
or spelling errors
1
May be lacking in
well-developed
ideas, logical
organization and
flow, transitions,
and/or more than 2
grammatical errors
2 - 3
Well-developed
ideas, logical

22. organization and
flow, well-executed
transitions, no more
than 2 grammatical
or spelling errors
4
APA Format Does not make a
clear attempt at APA
format; missing
citations and/or
references
0
Makes attempt at
APA format with
significant errors
1
Good execution of
APA format with
more than 2 mistakes

23. 2 - 3
Excellent execution
of APA format with
no more than 2
mistakes
4
Total
Summary Vs. Critique
Bright Ideas
The differences between a summary and a critique
While summaries and critiques are relatively easy to write, som
etimes itʹs difficult to tell the

24. differences between one and the other. Itʹs not uncommon for w
riters to lapse or fall into
summarizing (retelling literatureʹs main points in their own wor
ds) when the objective is to
actually write a critical response (evaluating or assessing literat
ure to share their
perspective with their reader). While a brief summary is a part o
f any well‐ written critique,
the major focus of a critical response is offering an analysis of
what you read. In contrast, a
summary simply shortens and restates what you read. To make c
lear the differences
between these two critical components of college writing, you s
hould consider what each
type of writing should or should not do.
A summary does not
• misrepresent what you read
• use irrelevant or unnecessary
details
• analyze or interpret what you
read
• judge or evaluate what you read
A summary does
• restate what you read in your
own words
• present only the main, or
important, details
• maintain a neutral and objective

25. stance
A critique does not
• restate what you read
• cover only the main points of
what you read
• repeat unimportant or irrelevant
details
• have a hostile or overly biased
tone or style
• use slang or overly casual
language
A critique does
• move beyond summary
• assess or analyze what you read
• offer interpretations and
judgments about what you read
• give evidence to support your
evaluation
Both the summary and the critique should be written using the li
terary present tense: the
author writes and third person point of view: he remembers, she
points out, the essay (it) has...
Both kinds of writing should include the title of the piece youʹre
writing about and authorʹs
full name. Subsequent mention of the author should be by last n

26. ame, never first name only.
Both kinds of writing should be carefully proofread and formatt
ed in MLA style or
according to your teacherʹs instructions.