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APA Style

This guide provides information and examples (in-text, references, and formatting) to help you cite sources in APA style. Why cite? Citing sources gives credit to the author(s) whose work you used to support your research.

General Rules - Authors

1 -2 authors

With 1 or 2 authors, list all authors in the full citation on the References page.  

With 1 or 2 authors, follow these examples for in-text citations:

Paraphrase:

(Segrin & Flora, 2011)

Direct Quote:

(Segrin & Flora, 2011, p. 17)

3 - 7 authors

With 3 to 7 authors, list all authors in the full citation on the References page.

With 3 to 7 authors, follow these examples for in-text citations:

Paraphrase:

First citation (Fawcett, Weber & Wilson, 2012). Subsequent citations (Fawcett et al., 2012).

 Direct Quote:

First citation (Fawcett, Weber & Wilson, 2012, p. 35).  Subsequent citations (Fawcett et al., 2012, p. 35)

8 or more authors

With 8 or more authors, list the first 6 authors.  After the sixth author's name, use a comma and then an ellipses in place of the following authors’ names. Then provide the final author name. 

Example:  

Terracciano, A., Abdel-Khalek, A. M., Adam, N., Adamovova, L., Ahn, C., Ahn, H., . . . McCrae, R. R. (2009).

Citations in Text

Paraphrase:

(Terracciano et al., 2009).

Direct Quote: 

(Terracciano et al., 2009, p. 345).

Corporate author

Sometimes a corporate entity is the author of your resource.

Example:

Health Canada. (2011). Eating well with Canada’s food guide. Retrieved from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php

General Rules - Citations

Direct Quotation

If you quote directly (use the exact words from your source), use quotation marks and cite the page in the in-text citation.

Paraphrase

If you paraphrase (use your own words to express the author's ideas), do not use quotation marks.  You are not required to use the page number in the in-text citation.  

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