APA QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
Examples of proper in-text citation for articles, textbooks, and books:
One author
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. He did so in 1943 (Grech, 2007). Then you either continue writing your paragraph or start the next paragraph accordingly. Note that the first initial/first name of the author is NOT INCLUDED IN TEXT.
Two authors
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. He did so in 1943 (Grech & Loeser, 2007). Then you either continue writing your paragraph or start the next paragraph accordingly. Note the use of the & rather than “and.” This is mandatory for APA.
Between three and five authors
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. He did so in 1943 (Grech, Loeser, Kunk, Freeman, & Portsy, 2007).
More than five authors
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. He did so in 1943 (Grech et al., 2007). Note the exact format of the et al. Note the proper punctuation and capitalization surrounding it.
In text-citing of internet source/webpage – works the same as above unless…
No author can be found (Look hard before deciding this!)
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. He did so in 1943 (“Story of the Brown Fox,” 2007). The title at the top of the webpage has been substituted for the author’s name. This should be the specific title of the document, not the general homepage name, nor should you ever give the url ( address here.
No date can be found (Look hard before deciding this!)
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. He did so in 1943 (Grech, n.d). n.d. has been substituted for the date as it means “no date.”
No author nor date can be found (Look hard before deciding this!)
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs. He did so in 1943 (“Story of the Brown Fox,” n.d.). The title at the top of the webpage has been substituted for the author’s name. This should be the specific title of the document, not the general homepage name, nor should you ever give the url ( address here. n.d. has been substituted for the date.
Examples of end of report References page:
*For articles, it follows the basic format of:
Author Last Name, Author First Initial. (Year). Title with only the first word and proper names
capitalized. Publisher in italics, volume # in italics, page numbers.
One author
Grech, L. (2007). Knowing about the quick brown fox. Science Magazine, 17, 23-32.
Two authors
Grech, L. & Kursch, J. (2007). Knowing about the quick brown fox. Science
Magazine, 17, 23-32.
More than six authors
Grech, L., et al. (2007). Knowing about the quick brown fox. Science Magazine, 17, 23-
32.
*For textbooks or book, it follows the rules above for authors. The format, however, changes to:
Author Last Name, Author First Initial. (Year). Title with only the first word and proper names
capitalized and italicized. Location: Publisher.
Grech, L. & Kursch, J. (2007). The World of Physics. Washington, D.C.: Prentice Hall.
*Online documents (These can be very tricky depending on the source.) Use the class homepage link for more detailed, specific ways to cite different online sources. Generally, titles of the page are italicized, unless there is no author. Bigger source names would be italicized in place of the title in these cases. See the examples below.
Online document with an author and a date
Grech, L. (2007). Knowing about the quick brown fox. Retrieved August 20, 2009 from
Online document with no author
Knowing about the quick brown fox. (2007). In Chemical Heritage Society. Retrieved
August 30, 2009 from
Online document with no author or date
Knowing about the quick brown fox. (n.d). In Chemical Heritage Society. Retrieved
August 30, 2009 from
*Omit the foundation or more general source if there is none. The retrieval date was omitted by the APA in 2007. However, it was only omitted for webpages that are most reliable that will not change or be edited. For our purposes, I believe most of the website your will be citing may not be permanent and thus, we will continue to use the retrieval date.
General guidelines for a References Page
1 – The title of the page is: References Then skip a couple of lines.
2 – List the references in alphabetical order according to what comes first.
3 – Do not number them.
4 – Indent the opposite way that you would a paragraph.
Grech, L. (2007). Knowing about the quick brown fox. Retrieved September 25, 2009 from
If need be continue typing and then even the next line is
indented as well. Only the first line is flushed all the way to the left.
5 – References are double spaced between them, but single-spaced within them.
Knowing about the quick brown fox. (2007). In Chemical Heritage Society. Retrieved September
25, 2009 from
Knowing about the quick brown fox. (n.d). In Chemical Heritage Society. Retrieved September 25,
2009 from