Use in-text citations when you reference information from an outside source. The general format for APA in-text citations is:
(author, year-of-publication)
Here’s a typical example:
Reading is best done in a well-lit area (Spence, 2003).
When you refer to the author by name in your paper, you can leave the author’s name out of the citation. Here’s an example:
Mayfield (2009) noted that the theory was first popularized in the early post-war years.
If you are quoting directly from the source, you will also need to include the page number. Cite it like this:
(author, year-of-publication, p. xxx) or (author, year-of-publication, pp. xxx-xxx)
To directly quote from written material that does not contain page numbers, provide readers with another way of locating the quoted passage (heading or section name, paragraph number, etc.)
Here’s an example of a direct quote using the author's name in the narrative:
As Christgau (2009) noted, “by second hearing its loveliness is almost literally haunting, an aural déjà vu” (p. 117).
The important thing is that you always include the author’s name, the publication date, and when quoting directly, the page number. And when you include the author’s name in your document, do not include it in the citation.
What if your source has more than one author? Use the formats below:
|
One Author
|
(Wilson, 2011)
|
| Two Authors | (Wilson & Love, 2011) |
| Three Authors | (Wilson et al., 2011) |
Painfully crackpot and painfully sung, but also inspired, not least because it calls forth forbidden emotions. For a surrogate teenager to bare his growing pains so guilelessly was exciting, or at least charming; for an avowed adult to expose an almost childish naivete is embarrassing, but also cathartic; and for a rock and roll hero to compose a verbally and musically irresistible paean to Johnny Carson is an act of shamanism pure and simple. (p. 117)
Works that cannot be recovered readers are cited in text as personal communications. Because readers cannot retrieve the information in personal communications, personal communications are not included in the reference list; they are cited in the text only. Give the initials and surname of the communicator, and provide as exact a date as possible, using the following formats (E. Earles, personal communication, March 10, 2020).