APA Style Guide: In-text Citations

Citing sources no longer means endnotes or footnotes. It is a simple way of noting that you are borrowing an author's words or ideas by inserting a brief parenthetical or narrative acknowledgement in your paper that includes the author's last name, and the year the material was published; page numbers are no longer required. When the reader sees this reference to an author they know to refer to the References portion of the paper to find the complete bibliographic citation.
 

Paraphrasing is when you use an idea from a piece of writing, but put it in your own words. You can change the structure and words but must stay true to the meaning of the passage. Paraphrasing still needs to refer to the author but does not use quotation marks.

It is not necessary to provide a page number in your citation unless you think it will be difficult for the reader to locate the passage you are citing, for example, include a specific page number(s), paragraph number(s), or other location (e.g., section name) if the source work being paraphrased is long or complex.
 

Quoting is when you take a phrase word-for-word from a body of text. You must use quotation marks and you must always reference the original writer/speaker either parenthetical or narrative.

PARENTHETICAL VS. NARRATIVE IN-TEXT CITATIONS

A Parenthetical citation puts the author's or authors' last name(s), a comma, and the year in parentheses. For example,
Clinical reasoning is a skill that nurses use to provide nursing care (Ryan & Kramer, 2024). Nurses of the future are expected to work in a globalized work that is dynamic, constantly evolving, and interconnected (Astle et al., 2024).
 

A Narrative citation puts the author's or authors' last names(s) in the sentence, followed by the year in parentheses. For example,
Ryan and Kramer (2024) discussed the importance of collecting assessment data in a way that promotes patient openness. According to Astle et al. (2024), the future of nursing in a globalized world is constantly changing and interconnected.


The Reference list provides all the information for each source ( ** remember - the references list uses hanging indents):

Example of a whole edited book:

Astle, B. J., Duggleby, W., Potter, P., Stockert, P. A., Perry, A. G., & Hall, A. (Eds.). (2024). Potter and Perry's Canadian fundamentals of nursing (7th ed.). Elsevier.

Example of a chapter of an edited book:

Ryan, S. W., & Kramer, M. L. (2024). Nursing assessment, diagnosis, and planning. In B. J. Astle, W. Duggleby, P. A. Potter, P. A., Stockert, A. G. Perry, & A. Hall (Eds.). Potter and Perry's Canadian fundamentals of nursing (7th ed., pp. 186-211). Elsevier.

When citing web sites or other electronic sources use the paragraph number preceded by the abbreviation para., e.g. (Natural Resources Defense Council, 2007, para. 4). You may also cite the heading of a section of the resource to direct the reader to the appropriate place in the document, e.g. (Stefansson et al., 2013, Discussion section, para. 1).

Below are some examples of how to format in-text citations:

This is used when you’ve found the perfect quote within one of the articles you have found. The quote is known as the Primary source. The article you found is the Secondary source. Most of what you’ll use for assignments are secondary sources.  Secondary sources on the APA Style and Grammar Guidelines will provide more information.
 

For example, you’re reading a book written by Lipschutz. He cites a quote by Partridge, and you would write in your essay ...

Examples of two narrative in-text citation found within that secondary article:

In 1984, in the book APA Style, Partridge stated, "APA is difficult" (as cited in Lipschutz, 2019, p.1).

Asch’s thoughts in 1952 on the study of social processes, (as cited in Gleitman, Roizin, & Sabini, 1997) found that …
 

And for the Reference page, you would reference Lipschutz, not Partridge.
Example of a reference:

Gleitman, H., Rozin, P., & Sabini, J. (1997). Solomon E. Asch (1907-1996). The American Psychologist, 52(9), 984–985. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.52.9.984