APA referencing: In-text citations

Knowledge & Information Services

What is an in-text citation and why cite?
What is an in-text citation?
• In text citation is an abbreviated form of a reference entry and the APA reference guide uses the author-date citation
system.

Why should I cite?

• To give credit to quoted authors
• Provides supporting evidence for facts, data, opinions
• To enable readers to follow-up on the quoted material
• To trace the origin of ideas
• To demonstrate your assignment or research report is well-researched
• Avoid plagiarism
Basic examples of in-text citations
Author type Parenthetical citation Narrative citation
One author (Ford, 2021) Ford (2021)
Two authors (Ford & Ward, 2021) Ford and Ward (2021)
Three or more authors (Ford et al., 2021) Ford et al. (2021)
Group authors with abbreviation
First citation (South African Reserve Bank [SARB], South African Reserve Bank (SARB,
2021) 2021)
Subsequent citations
(SARB, 2021) SARB (2021)
Group authors without abbreviation (Stanford University, 2021) Stanford University (2021)
No author

Using title as an author (Understanding Multinational Understanding Multinational

Companies, 2021) Companies (2021)

“Anonymous” (Anonymous, 2005) Anonymous (2005)

No date (Selepe, n.d.) Selepe (n.d.)

Adapted from Missing reference information. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/missing-information
Direct quotation

Direct quotations
• Place the text in inverted commas
• Place the page number after the date

Examples
Parenthetical citation
“Falsely balanced news coverage can distort the public’s perception of expert consensus on an issue”
(Koehler, 2016, p. 1).

Narrative citation
According to Koehler (2016) “falsely balanced news coverage can distort the public’s perception of expert consensus on an
issue” (p. 1).

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing restates another person’s work in your own words

When paraphrasing
Cite the original work using either the narrative or parenthetical citation format.

Examples
Parenthetical citation
The public’s view of expert consent on a particular issue can be distorted by bothsideism (Koehler, 2016).

Narrative citation
Koehler (2016) stated that the public’s view of expert consent on a particular issue can be distorted by bothsideism.

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Parenthetical citation

In parenthetical citations
• Both the author and the date are enclosed in brackets.
• Can appear within or at the end of a sentence
• Always put a full-stop after the closing bracket, if you have your parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence.
• Year of publication is always included or (n.d.)
• Always provide full citation (APA does not use ibid.)
• Use the ampersand (&) between name (two authors) or before the last author (multiple authors)

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

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Narrative citation

In narrative citations

• The author becomes part of the text/appears in the running text and only the date appears in parenthesis after the
author’s name.
• According to APA, in rare cases both the author and the date may appear in the narrative (in the running text) and is such
cases there is no need to use parenthesis.
• Year of publication can be omitted if same work is cited
• Use “and” instead of the ampersand (&) where there are more than one authors

Example
Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.

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

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Repeated narrative citation (year omitted)
Citing works with two or more authors
When citing works with the same author and same date,
• Include a lowercase letter after the year
• This is applicable in both the parenthetical and narrative citation, and the reference list

Example
(Ford, 2021a)
Ford (2021b)
(Ford, n.d.-a, n.d.-b)

When citing two or more works by the same author,

• Place citations with no date first
• Place citations with dates in chronological order
• “In-press” citations appears last
• Give the author’s last name once, followed by the date for each subsequent work
Example
(Ford, n.d., 2005, 2008, 2010, 2021, in press)
Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines
Citing multiple authors
Citing two of more authors in the same work
• Work written by one or two authors, include the names of the two authors in every citation
• Work written by three or more, include the first author’s name and use “et al.” in every citation (including the first)

When citing multiple works,

• Place the citation in alphabetical order (parenthetical)
• Citations may appear in any order (narrative)

Examples
Parenthitical citation
(Adams, 2021; Brown et al., 2010; Ford, 2020)

Narrative citation
Brown et al. (2010), Ford (2020), and Adams (2021) argues …………

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Citing secondary works
In scholarly work, a secondary source refers to content first reported in another source.

Secondary sources
• Cite secondary sources sparingly—for instance, when the original work is out of print, unavailable, or available only in a
language that you do not understand.
• In the text, identify the primary source and write “as cited in” the secondary source that you used.

Example
If you read Smith (2020) and Smith cited Warren 2010 work. Cite as follows
(Warren, 2010 as cited in Smith, 2020)

On the reference list, reference the author whose work you read, in this case Smith.

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Citing authors with same last name
When citing authors with the same last name,
• Include the initials of the authors even if the date is different
• In works written by more than one authors, include only the initials of the first author

Example
(J. Ford, 2021; H. Ford, 2000)

(J. Ford & Price, 2020; H. Ford, 2000)

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

More on in-text citations

If the author is not known,

• Provide the title of the work and the date
• If the title is too long, shorten it for the in-text citation
• Do not write anonymous, unless the author is listed as anonymous. Anonymous takes the place of the author.

Example
(Understanding Multinational Companies, 2021)

(Anonymous, 2005)

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

Personal communication

Personal communication includes emails, text messages, online chats or direct messages, personal interviews, telephone
conversations, live speeches, unrecorded classroom lectures, memos, letters, amongst others.

• Personal communication is cited in text only.

• Give the initial(s) and surname of the communicator, and provide as exact a date as possible, using the following formats:

Examples
Narrative citation
L. Selepe (personal communication, August 3, 2021)

Parenthetical citation
(L. Selepe, personal communication, August 3, 2021)

Personal communication is not included in the reference list as readers cannot retrieve this information.

Source: APA. (2019). APA Style Blog. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines

QUESTIONS?