Written by Greetings All,
We have been getting a lot of questions from INFO 200 students on how to incorporate APA 7.0 style into blog posts and research papers… Here is a basic outline for better understanding the various types of “In-Text Citations” in both narrative and parenthetical formats:
| Type of Citation | Narrative Format | Parenthetical Format |
|---|---|---|
| One work by one author | Walker (2007) | (Walker, 2007) |
| One work by two authors | Walker and Allen (2004) | (Walker & Allen, 2004) |
| One work by three or more authors | Bradley et al. (1999) | (Bradley et al., 1999) |
| One work by six or more authors | Wasserstein et al. (2005) | (Wasserstein et al., 2005) |
In APA style including these types of in-text citations is very important — as it helps not only to prevent plagiarism, but also to refer our readers to the more complete bibliographic reference listing at the end of individual blog posts and research papers. In order to better guide our readers through our academic research and avoid plagiarism, please be sure to create an in-text citation whenever you quote directly (or paraphrase) another reference work in your research. As we see in the table above, there are two main types of in-text citations: narrative and parenthetical.
Narrative Citations:
Narrative citation is when you include the author’s name in your text as you reference their quote (or paraphrase their work) in your own research. For example, when highlighting the following chapter from Hirsh’s text in a bibliographic source — notice how we also reference the authors of the chapter in question:
Fisher, K. E., & Fulton, C. (2022). Information communities. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information services today: An introduction (3rd ed., pp. 41-52). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Here is an example of an in-text narrative citation:
As stated by Fisher and Fulton (2022), the articulated “community needs, behaviors, and assets should drive the development, implementation, and evaluation of information services” (p. 20).
Parenthetical Citations:
Parenthetical citation utilizes the author-date listing when it is not easy to use a narrative citation and directly identify the authors’ names in your research. The correct format includes names, dates, and pages in parentheses within the body of the text. For example, when referring to Dresang and Koh’s work in a bibliographic reference — be certain to list the names of both authors:
Dresang, E.T., & Koh, K. (2009). Radical change theory, youth information behavior, and school libraries. Library Trends 58(1), 26-50. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.0.0070.
Here is an example of an in-text parenthetical citation:
In the age of Web 2.0 and participatory culture, radical change theory presents a number of salient ideas which strive to illuminate not only the information seeking behaviors of youth, but also the overwhelming complexity of ongoing transformations present in our everyday school library systems (Dresang & Koh, 2009, pp. 26-50).
For more detailed guidance in following APA 7.0 style, here are a few additional resources to check out:
- Purdue’s OWL (Online Writing Lab) is a comprehensive resource for APA formatting rules and writing tips. APA 7 examples and materials are now included.
- How to cite a study or article cited in a course resource or another article.
- Purdue’s OWL also provides a general overview of Changes in the APA 7th Edition, as compared to the APA 6th edition.
- Watch this Introduction to Citation Styles for APA 7th Edition to help familiarize yourself with formatting for in-text and reference list citations.
- The Citation Machine helps you generate and format citations in APA (or other common citation formats). While this can be a huge time saver, be sure to also double-check your citations against the APA manual. Currently, the tool only creates APA 6 citations, so you will have to make the necessary adjustments in your references.
- Some additional bibliographic management options include: Zotero, RefWorks, EasyBib, EndNote, and Mendeley.
- SJSU Writing Center provides a convenient APA General Citation Guide for the 7th Edition.
- APAStyle has a variety of quick reference tools, like the following Reference Guide for Journal Articles and Books.
- WI+RE is a learner-led community at UCLA focused on helping everyone succeed in their writing and research projects. Check out their Research Handouts for student academic writing. While some of the resources are specifically for students at UCLA, others are helpful for student research approaches in general.
Thank you @michael for compiling this reference resource for us!
@alishacosta Thought this would be useful.
@alishacosta Thought this would be useful.
Thank you! I have searched the APA book and several online guides for a section with information about how to cite certain works within the body of a paper. For example, if I were writing out the title of a book, The Color Purple, would I italicize this? And would the book be in title case or sentence case? Same for a journal, paper, etc.
Not sure where to find this information, because when I search, I usually find how to format books, etc. in the references section and as in-text citations, but not how to refer to the title of a work within the body of a paper.
@michael or any classmates, do you know where I can find this information? Thanks!
@elenaloper this one feels more elusive. I am 100% fine with just putting the title in italics. I searched around on the APA page and found this which implies that you don’t use the title at all in text.
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/book-references
Also, the most important thing is the ideas you are sharing and how you communicate your synthesis of the literature. As I said in one of the introductory videos, we need to have reasonably good APA style, but but it is not my number one concern.
@elenaloper and @Michael, this is what I found (though I hear you I hear you @Michael when you say it’s not your number one concern):
-If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source: Permanence and Change. Exceptions apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs: Writing New Media, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
(Note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Writing new media.)
-When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word: Natural-Born Cyborgs.
-Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: “Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of Hitchcock’s Vertigo.”
-If the title of the work is italicized in your reference list, italicize it and use title case capitalization in the text: The Closing of the American Mind; The Wizard of Oz; Friends.
-If the title of the work is not italicized in your reference list, use double quotation marks and title case capitalization (even though the reference list uses sentence case): “Multimedia Narration: Constructing Possible Worlds;” “The One Where Chandler Can’t Cry.”
Since book titles are italicized on the Reference List, The Color Purple would be italicized in the body of the paper and you would use title case. The above information is on the Purdue Online Writing Lab site under “In-Text Citations: The Basics.” https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_the_basics.html
Hope that helps! I am personally haunted by the ghost of MLA style from undergrad, and your question helped me get some APA practice in.
@julienoted thank you for all of this. I have long thought that there should be a much more straightforward and less esoteric/code/whatever method for citations.
Thank you so much @julienoted and @michael
I appreciate you looking into this and reporting back here! My undergrad used an extremely wonky and awkward combination of Chicago and MLA, and that was 10+ years ago haha. I do like just having one style guide to reference, but sometimes it’s hard for me to find citation guides for the *specific* source I’m trying to cite somewhere!
Another question: if you are citing the same author who published different works in the same year, which in-text citation would be best?
1. The theory of Radical Change was published by Dresang as both a paper and a journal article (Dresang, 1999a, 1999b).
2. The theory of Radical Change was published by Dresang as both a paper and a journal article (Dresang, 1999a; Dresang, 1999b).
3. The theory of Radical Change was published by Dresang as both a paper (1999a) and a journal article (1999b).
Please see:
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/same-year-author
This would be the choice:
(Dresang, 1999a, 1999b).
thank you !
Hi! I have a question about in-text and reference citations when writing about Person A’s use of Person B’s work when I did not read Person B’s work.
E.g., Hartel drew upon prior work by Robert Stebbins.
Is in-text:
“Hartel (2003) drew upon work by sociologist Robert Stebbins (1999) blah blah blah…”
and, if so, do they both go in the reference list?
Or is it:
“Hartel (2003) drew upon work by sociologist Robert Stebbins blah blah blah…”
and only Hartel goes in the reference list?
I could get around it altogether by not naming Stebbins, but his work seems super important to Hartel and then if I understand correctly he goes on to do interdisciplinary work with LIS people later on, so I think I should name him.
Anyone know what to do here? Thank you!!
@anniemiz sincere apologies for missing this comment. Absolutely Stebbing should be mentioned and I could see using either of the two methods you suggest because this is a research summary. It might be good to site Stebbins on his own and then Hartel. I think I saw your assignment come in and this is no worry if you did it one way or the other.
@anniemiz and @Michael, thank you for the question and answer. I struggled with this too, and I also had trouble being unsure of which article to cite when someone has many articles on similar concepts (like Stebbins). I’m excited about the Literature Matrix Template because it seems like a very helpful organizational tool!
@anniemiz sincere apologies for missing this comment. Absolutely Stebbing should be mentioned and I could see using either of the two methods you suggest because this is a research summary. It might be good to site Stebbins on his own and then Hartel. I think I saw your assignment come in and this is no worry if you did it one way or the other.