APA 7 Citation & Style

As a writer, you will use in-text citations to indicate where you used words, ideas, or information that came from another source. You include information about the source in parentheses to give the reader clues about the original author and source. 

The video below provides an overview of how to use and construct in-text citations. 

Video Source:  APA In-Text Citations by Excelsior Online Writing Lab, 2020 (https://owl.excelsior.edu/citation-and-documentation/apa-style/apa-in-text-citations/). CC BY. Note: video transcript available on original site. 

Things to remember about in-text citations in APA:

• In APA, the basic in-text citation (the parenthetical citation) includes the author’s last name and the year of publication
• If you are quoting, you will also include the page number where you found the quote. 
• A narrative citation is another option. This includes the author or authors' last names in the text of your paper as you introduce the material and then includes the date and any relevant page numbers in parentheses at the end of the sentence. 
• Your parenthetical citations always appear before punctuation marks such as commas and periods

Examples of in-text citations:

• Lei (2015) argues that "the hours between classes are perhaps students’ most valuable study time; yet, ironically, the most frequently misused" (p. 196).
• Many students find it helpful to schedule regular study time for each class every week so that studying becomes a predictable part of their weekly routine (Lei, 2015, p. 196).
• There have been numerous developments in understanding how scoliosis affects young people. In one study, researchers used three-dimensional modeling software to visualize the impact of scoliosis on the spinal cord of adolescents and simulate potential future impacts on spinal cord curvature and function (Grunwald et al., 2021).

In-text citation format examples (narrative and parenthetical) for paraphrasing and summarizing information:

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