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Home Style and Grammar Guidelines In-Text Citations Basic Principles Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text...

Parenthetical Versus Narrative In-Text

Citations
In-text citations have two formats: parenthetical and narrative. Parenthetical and narrative
citations are covered in
In parenthetical citations, the author name and publication date appear in Sections 8.11 of the APA
parentheses. Publication Manual, Seventh
Edition (/products/publication-
In narrative citations, the author name is incorporated into the text as part of the
manual-7th-edition)
sentence and the year follows in parentheses.

This guidance is the same as in the

6th edition.

Parenthetical citations
Both the author and the date, separated by a comma, appear in parentheses for a
parenthetical citation. A parenthetical citation can appear within or at the end of a
sentence.

Falsely balanced news coverage can distort the public’s perception of expert
consensus on an issue (Koehler, 2016).

If other text appears with the parenthetical citation, use commas around the year.

(see Koehler, 2016, for more detail)

When text and a citation appear together in parentheses, use a semicolon to separate
the citation from the text; do not use parentheses within parentheses.

(e.g., falsely balanced news coverage; Koehler, 2016)

Narrative citations
The author’s surname appears in running text, and the date appears in parentheses
immediately after the author’s name for a narrative citation. The author’s name can be
included in the sentence in any place it makes sense.
 Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.

In rare cases, the author and date might both appear in the narrative. In this case, do
not use parentheses.

In 2016, Koehler noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.

From the APA Style blog

(/blog/psi-chi-literature-review-webinar) (/blog/nonrecoverable-sources) (/blog/outdated-sources-myth)

Key takeaways from the Psi Chi
webinar So You Need to Write a
Literature Review (/blog/psi-chi-
literature-review-webinar)
This blog post describes key tasks in
writing an effective literature review and
provides strategies for approaching
those tasks.
How to cite a work with a
nonrecoverable source
(/blog/nonrecoverable-sources)
In most cases, nonrecoverable sources
such as personal emails, nonarchived
social media livestreams (or deleted and
unarchived social media posts),
classroom lectures, unrecorded webinars
or presentations, and intranet sources
should be cited only in the text as
personal communications.
The “outdated sources” myth
(/blog/outdated-sources-myth)
The “outdated sources” myth is that
sources must have been published
recently, such as the last 5 to 10 years.
There is no timeliness requirement in
APA Style.

(/blog/citing-contemporary-sources)
From COVID-19 to demands for social justice:
Citing contemporary sources for current events
(/blog/citing-contemporary-sources)
The guidance in the seventh edition of the Publication
Manual makes the process of citing contemporary
sources found online easier than ever before.
(/blog/citing-classical-religious-works)
Citing classical and religious works (/blog/citing-
classical-religious-works)
A classical or religious work is cited as either a book or a
webpage, depending on what version of the source you
are using. This post includes details and examples.

(/blog/academic-writer-higher-education-educators)
Academic Writer—APA’s essential teaching
resource for higher education instructors
(/blog/academic-writer-higher-education-educators)
Academic Writer’s advanced authoring technology and
(/blog/webinar-citing-text)
APA Style webinar on citing works in text
(/blog/webinar-citing-text)
Attend the webinar, “Citing Works in Text Using Seventh
Edition APA Style,” on July 14, 2020, to learn the keys to
accurately and consistently citing sources in APA Style.
digital learning tools allow students to take a hands-on
approach to learning the scholarly research and writing
process.

Last updated: July 2022 Date created: February 2020

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