Fletcher Library at the West Campus
APA: Examples of In-text Citations
One Author:
Author's surname part of text: year of publication in parentheses.Granger (1998) found that most birds...
Paraphrased or attributable idea without author's name in text:
Author's name and year in parentheses.
Usually in the sixth grade (Granger, 1988)...
A direct quote:
Author's name, year and page numbers in parentheses.
"Birds stayed close to..." (Granger, 1988, p. 10)
Two authors:
Cite both names every time the reference occurs in text.Granger and Smythe (1897) discovered found to be unreliable (Granger & Smythe, 1897)
"Three types..." (Granger & Smythe, 1897, p.122)
Three, four, or five authors:
Cite all author's surnames the first time; only the first author's surname with et al. in subsequent cites.Use as first citation in text.
no good. (Yeats, Smith, & Jones, 1993)
Use as subsequent first citation per paragraph thereafter.
Yeats et al., (1993) found
When citing a specific part of a source.
"Resulting in a..." (Yeats et al., 1993, pp. 23-24)
Six or more authors:
Use only the first author's surname and et alSmythe et al. (1994) discovered
result (Smythe et al., 1994)
No author:
Cite the first two or three words of the reference list entry (usually title) and the year. Titles of a periodical, book, brochure, or report are italicized. Titles of an article or chapter are quoted.
On free care ("Study Finds," 1982)
(Science, 1993)
the book College Bound Seniors (1979)
(Anonymous, 1998)
