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APA Citations

In-Text Citations

You will use an in-text citation in the body of your paper whenever you summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source.

Place in-text citations in the APA style at the end of the sentence, in parentheses, before the period. Include the name of the author(s) and the year the work was published.

Example:

Despite having effective tools to pursue legal action against the affiliate networks that support dishonest social media influencers, the Federal Trade Commission has yet to take action against a $4.5 billion industry (Bladlow, 2017).

Number of Authors & Type of Citation

Your in-text citations will look different depending on the number of authors attached to each source, and whether you use a parenthetical citation or a narrative citation.

A parenthetical citation is the most common form of citation. Parenthetical citations occur at the end of your sentences.

A narrative citation can occur at the beginning or in the middle of your sentences. Use a narrative citation if it is important for you to mention the author of a work. You might do this if the author is well known in their field, or if you're comparing opposing viewpoints of different authors.

Use the following table as a guide.

Number of Authors Parenthetical Citation Narrative Citation
One Author (Berger, 2016). Berger (2016) argues that...
Two Authors (Moore & Lloyd, 2008). In Moore and Lloyd's (2008) work...
Three or More Authors (Troyan et al., 2017). Troyan et al. (2017) provide evidence that...

Note the abbreviation "et al." when there are three or more authors, and the different uses of "&" versus "and."

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