APA Style In-Text Citations
APA—or American Psychological Association—style is the format you will most likely be asked to use when writing papers for classes that are in science or social science departments, such as biology, physics, psychology, or human nutrition, just to name a few. In this part of our three part series on APA style, we will be discussing how to properly notate in-text citations.
An in-text citation is a quotation that you are quoting within the body of your paper, such as: Pavlov states, “Dogs begin salivating when they hear the bell even when there is no food stimuli.” What is inside the quotation marks is the in-text quotation. Pretty basic, I know. Where this becomes tricky for some people is the notation of the source.
For all formats, you must notate where you got your quotation in the text after the quotation. We’ll use the same example again: Pavlov states, “Dogs begin salivating when they hear the bell even when there is no food stimuli,” (Pavlov, 30). The bit within the parentheses, Pavlov, 30, is the notation. Note that this occurs outside of the quotation marks and includes a comma between the author’s last name and the page number. Also note that the period is replaced by a comma inside the quotation marks.
Confused? Here is a step-by-step way to go about notating in-text citations in APA style:
1. Look at your quotation. For instance, “Joe eats dirt.”
2. Look at your author’s last name and the page number. For instance, Doe, page 52
3. Write the quotation in your paper, replacing the period with a comma. For instance, “Joe eats dirt,”
4. Now add your citation. For instance, “Joe eats dirt,” (Doe, 52).
5. You’re done! Good job.
While this may seem nit-picky, it is absolutely imperative that you include all of these elements when using in-text citations in papers that require APA-style formatting. If you do not, you are asking for your grade to be negatively effected!
Tomorrow, we will talk about writing bibliographies in APA style!
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