APA 6th Edition A quick take on APA 6th.

There are two important issues that you should take care of with regards referencing you assignments. The first has to do in in-text citations (the ones that you include in the main body of your essay or report) and the second is the reference list. Lets take a look at how in-text citations are to be done. But before we proceed any further, please remember to only use the SURNAMES (thats family names) of the authors. In-text citations do not use first names (or given names) or initials. Lets just say that you have sourced an idea from an article that Smith and Jones wrote in 2002. This in-text citation can be included in your essay or report in the following manner: In brackets such as (Smith & Jones, 2002) or As part of a sentence such as Smith and Jones (2002) suggest that ....

I trust that this is clear. Do note that when you use the citation in a bracketed form, the ampersand symbol (&) is utilized. When you use the citation as part of the sentence, do not use the & symbol - write the word and instead. It is not good writing form to use & as part of a sentence. Thus, apples and oranges would be acceptable but apples & oranges would not.

What about situations where there are more than two authors? Well, the table below will show you how to do this.

Number of authors 1 2 3 to 5 6 to 7 8 or more

First time you cite this source Authors surname Both authors All authors First author et al. First author et al.

Subsequent citations Authors surname Both authors First author et al. First author et al. First author et al.

So in this case, say that you are citing a paper that has five authors. The first time you include the citation, list all five authors. For example, you might say:

The research suggests that people need to have regular breaks from work (Smith, Jones, Tan, Pandit & Orm, 2010).

This can also be written as:

Smith, Jones, Tan, Pandit and Orm (2010) say that people need to have regular breaks from work.

Subsequently, when you cite this work again, what you do is just mention the first author. The following example will help (I hope)

Having regular breaks is helpful because ......... and it is like recharging depleted batteries (Smith et al, 2010).

Smith et al. (2010) recommend that regular breaks are helpful because .... depleted batteries.

I trust that this is fairly clear to you.

But what if there are no authors?

Where there are no authors, use the first few words of the title, or use the complete title if that title is short. This should correspond to what you have written in the reference list. Lets say that you have read a newspaper article entitled Key reforms required to propel the country forward. You realize that the author(s) is/are not listed. The way to include this in your essay or report is to write in one of the following ways: According to the article Key reforms required to propel the country forward (2010), New Zealand needs to ...

It was reported that the government will need to bring about reforms to ensure that the country ..... (Key reforms required to propel the country forward, 2010).

Direct quotes.

For quotes you must include exact page numbers in your citation. Do note that there are two categories of quotes. Short quotations are less than 40 words long and can be incorporated into the text; for example The researchers state that ............................... (Smith, 2010, p. 377)

The above can also be written thus: Smith (2010) said that .................................... (p. 377).

Well, so much for short quotations. What about the long quotations?

For long quotations that are more than 40 words, introduce the quote with a colon and then start the quote on a new line. Make sure that you have indented the quote but do not use quotation marks. You will need to make sure that you do give the page number. Here is an example:

Smith and Jones argue that:

Without leadership succession companies would be vulnerable to ..................................................................... .................................................................................(p. 377)

Comment [j1]: You will also note that the indented direct quote is not in 1.5 spacing. It is now single spaced.

The above is not exhaustive and you should refer to the APA 6th edition for full information. Now lets move to the matter of the reference list.

Reference list
First of all, do not use a bibliography. Use only a reference list that includes only the sources that you referred to in your essay or report. All references cited MUST appear in the reference list.

Arrange your reference list in alphabetical order.

Remember to indent the second and subsequent lines of each entry. The indentation should be about 5 to 7 spaces. For example (these two sourced do not exist I made them up for this example):

Smith, J., Jones, T., Tan, J., Pandit, V. & Orm, K. L. (2010). The problem with leadership succession planning systems in Fortune 500 companies. New York, NY: Leadership Press.

Randall, P. K., Oracle, J. & Goodnight, J. (2009).

When company
Comment [j2]: Please note that this list is not in alphabetical order. In a properly formatted reference list, the Smith et al source would be after the Randall et al article.

cultures collide. The Journal of Management Review, 30(4), 1225.

You will notice that the title of the book is in italics while the name of the journal is italicized.

Now, assume that the Smith et al. (2010) book was not published in the USA but was published in Auckland. This would then read as follows:

Smith, J., Jones, T., Tan, J., Pandit, V. & Orm, K. L. (2010). The problem with leadership succession planning systems in Fortune 500 companies. Auckland, New Zealand: Leadership Press.

There are lots more that we can get into and you really must consult the APA 6th Edition on this yourself. I have included a sample reference list (all fictional sources) for you to follow:

References
Alfred, G. J., Brulette, C. T., & Oliver, W. E. (2009). The business of writing: A writers handbook. New York, NY: St Martins Press.

Best,

A.

(2004).

International

history

of

the

twentieth century

management. Retrieved from http://www.onlinenetlibrary.com

Easton, C. B. (2008). The impact of poverty on health. In K. Dew & A. Matheson (Eds.), Understanding the problems of health inequalities in New Zealand (pp.97-106). Press. Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University

Flesch, R. (n.d.). How to write in plain, simple and clear English. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.mangle.canterbury.ac.nz/writing_guide/writing/flesch.shtml