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APA 7th Edition Citation Guide

• General APA Style Guidelines
• Book and eBook Examples
• Article Examples
• Multimedia Examples
• Visual Works Examples
• Social Media Examples
• Personal Communication and Interview Examples
• Artificial Intelligence
• In-Text (Parenthetical) Examples
• Annotated Bibliography
• Other Citation Styles

Good to know

The punctuation at the end of the sentence goes after and outside the parenthesis.

I am paraphrasing (Smith, 2019). 

If you are using a direct quote, there is no comma between the end of the quotation and the in-text citation. 

"this is a quote" (Smith, 2019, p. 263). 

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / APA Format / EasyBib APA Parenthetical and Narrative Citations Guide

EasyBib APA Parenthetical and Narrative Citations Guide

If you’re writing a research paper , thesis, or dissertation, you’ll need to properly credit any ideas or information you’ve included from other sources. The best way to do this is by including in-text citations and full references.

This guide is designed to help you create APA style parenthetical citations and narrative citations. You’ll learn the difference between APA parenthetical citations and narrative citations, as well as the correct way to make them within the text. The information from this guide comes from the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , Chapter 8 (there is no connection between the association and this guide).

We will cover:

Why We Include In-text Citations

Parenthetical vs narrative in-text citations, what about reference list entries.

• When to Include Page Numbers

Basic APA Citations

Narrative and parenthetical citations apa with two authors.

• Citing Works with Three or More Authors

Citing Works Without an Author

Citing a specific part of a work.

• Citing Works With Group Authors or Corporate Authors

Citing Classical, Religious, or Translated Works

Citing and formatting block quotes.

Are you working in another citation format? MLA in-text & parenthetical citations are very different, so don’t assume all styles are the same! Other resources you might like to read up on are MLA works cited pages and how to cite websites in MLA .

Video Overview

An in-text citation is used to indicate what information comes from another source . It usually includes the source author and publication year. These citations are important because they:

• Allow readers to easily locate the full reference on the final page. This means they can easily look up the source for further research.
• Give proper credit to sources and other authors.
• Demonstrate that you are a responsible and ethical researcher.

Both parenthetical and narrative citations are a type of in-text citation. They have these things in common:

• They are used in the text of a paper.
•  A full reference to the source mentioned in the in-text citation is included in the reference list at the end of a paper.
• Usually, both include the author’s last name and the year the source was published.

Here is a brief overview of the differences:

Now that we have an idea of how each is unique, let’s examine each a little more closely.

• Parenthetical Citations

The most common form of in-text citation is known as a parenthetical. This means that the reference information is provided within parentheses at the end of the sentence.

Parenthetical citation structure:

(Author Last Name, Year Published)

Parenthetical citation APA example:

(Crystal, 2011)

Example in use:

“Undeaf” is a word coined by Shakespeare in Richard II (Crystal, 2011).

Narrative Citations

If the sentence itself includes the author’s last name and/or the publication date, this information does not need to appear within the parenthetical citation. If all of the required citation elements are provided within the sentence, then no parenthetical citation is required.

Narrative citation example:

According to Crystal (2011), “undeaf” is a word that was invented by Shakespeare.

If you’re looking for another parenthetical citation APA website to learn about the origins, here’s an informative site . If you want a deeper dive into this topic, we have a full APA parenthetical citation website page, called APA in-text citation . If you’d like an overview on how to go about starting a research paper from scratch, our research page is a great place to start.

These brief narrative and APA parenthetical citations are only half of what’s needed. A full reference to the source mentioned in the in-text citation is required. These references are placed on the final page of a paper or project.

Only a snippet is included in the body of the paper (via the in-text citation) to provide the reader with a quick reference, easy enough to read and breeze over, without having to stop the flow of reading through the paper. Readers use the information in the narrative or APA format parenthetical citation to then flip to the reference page to find the rest of the information about the source.

Full references include not only the author, date, and page numbers, but also the title of the source, the publisher, and other key pieces of information. Here is a reference entry example for the source that we used above:

Reference entry example:

Crystal, K. (2011). The story of English in 100 words. St. Martin’s Press.

To allow readers to easily locate the full reference on the final page, make sure the information in the narrative and APA format parenthetical citation matches the beginning of the information in the full reference.

When to Include Page Numbers 

For most in-text citations, an author name and a publication year are the only elements required. Adding page numbers is only necessary when you are citing a direct quotation from the work.

For works without pages, the Publication manual states to use other indicators (Section 8.28):

• Heading or section
• Specific paragraphs (para. 1)
• A timestamp (10:11)
• Chapter, canto, verse or line

If you’re searching for a narrative or APA parenthetical citation generator, look no further! Head to EasyBib.com to use an automatic citation generator which can help make your full references for the APA reference page or APA bibliography . There’s also an option to create your narrative or parenthetical citation. If you want to go the old-fashioned route, and learn how to create narrative references and how to use parenthetical citations APA, continue reading. If you’d like to learn how to style your final paper, read our APA format page.

Need resources related to MLA format ? Check out the other tools and citation guides on EasyBib.com. As always, EasyBib.com has even more styles available.

Parenthetical example – Authored book

It can be said that all postmodern art is a reaction to fake sincerity, or faked patriotism (Baxter, 2007).

Narrative example – Authored book

According to Baxter (2007), all forms of postmodern art can be seen as reactions to faked sincerity or faked patriotism.

Reference entry example – Authored book

Baxter, C. (2007). The art of subtext. Graywolf Press.

If you are citing a reference entry that has two authors, include both names, separated by an ampersand.

APA style parenthetical citation structure:

(1st Author’s Last Name & 2nd Author’s Last Name, Year)

APA parenthetical citation example – Two authors:

Rallying to restore sanity was a revolutionary undertaking (Stewart & Colbert, 2010).

Narrative example – Two authors:

Stewart and Colbert (2010) stated that rallying to restore sanity was a revolutionary undertaking.

Reference entry example – Two authors:

Citing Works With Three or More Authors

Include only the last name of the first author, followed by “et al.” and the year published in all narrative and parenthetical citations APA.

Note: The reference entry should list the names of up to 20 authors.

Parenthetical example – Three or more authors:

Rallying to restore sanity was a revolutionary undertaking (Stewart et al., 2010).

Narrative example – Three or more authors:

Stewart, Colbert, and Oliver (2010) stated that rallying to restore sanity was a revolutionary undertaking.

Looking for an APA parenthetical citation website or tool to help you create a citation? Check out the resources at EasyBib.com.

In cases where no author is provided and no author can be reasonably determined, the title of the work takes the place of the author name in the in-text citation.

There are a couple of things to consider if you are going to use the title of your work for the in-text citation:

• If the title is italicized within your reference entry (as it would be for most periodicals and journal articles) then it also needs to be italicized inside the in-text citation.
• If the title is not italicized in the reference entry, then it needs to be placed within quotation marks (“Title”) in the in-text citation. This is the case with individual book chapters, TV episodes, and other works that are entries within a larger body of work.
• Work titles that appear inside an in-text citation should be in title case (all words capitalized) while the same title in the reference entry should be in sentence case (only the first word, proper nouns, and words appearing after a colon or semicolon are capitalized).

Parenthetical example – Source without an author:

Statistics confirm that the trend is rising (“New Data”, 2013).

Narrative Example – Source Without an Author:

In the chapter entitled “New Data” (2013), statistics confirm the trend is rising.

Even though it may seem like you don’t need to create a narrative or parenthetical citation APA format reference for works without an author, it’s still necessary! You may want to run your paper through our plagiarism checker , which scans for any instances of accidental plagiarism and also does a check for grammar. If you have an adjective , preposition , or noun that needs to be touched up, we’ve got you covered!

When citing a specific part of a work, provide the relevant page number or section identifier, such as chapters, tables or equations. The idea here is to give as much information as is necessary for your reader to easily locate the part of the work that is being referenced.

Parenthetical example – Direct quotation:

One of the most memorable quotes is when he says, “You are going to live a good and long life filled with great and terrible moments that you cannot even imagine yet!” to Augustus (Green, 2012, p. 272).

If the source does not include page numbers (such as online sources), you can reference any of the following elements based on which one you believe will be most helpful to your reader.

• Section title or heading name
• Paragraph number
• Time stamp (for audiovisual works)
• Verse, line, or canto (for religious and canonically numbered works)

Parenthetical example – Paraphrasing, no page number available

He quickly learned that pandas were not considered good pets (Chan, 2011, para. 3).

If page numbers are not available, it might be necessary to include the section title or heading name, especially with works that have been published online. If these section titles are overly lengthy, they can be abbreviated for clarity and tidiness.

Parenthetical citation – Abbreviated section title with paragraph

The sample population included both red and giant pandas (Chan, 2011, Methodology section, para. 1).

 In need of a narrative or APA parenthetical citation website? Check out the tools and resources on EasyBib.com! We make the narrative and parenthetical APA citation process easy for you!

Citing Group Authors or Corporate Authors

Groups, corporations, government agencies, associations, and other organizations can be considered the author of a source in a narrative or a parenthetical citation APA. This is commonplace with reports, scientific studies, and other works (like the Publication manual ) that have been commissioned by larger entities.

If you are trying to cite a work that has no listed author, but the work appears in a corporate or agency-related periodical or website, then the corporation or agency can safely be listed as the author.

Parenthetical example – Group author:

The 2019 survey of students found that the cost of education and student loans deterred many students from pursuing another college degree (Chegg, 2019).

A Note on Abbreviations

It’s not required to abbreviate the name of a group author. However, if a well-known abbreviation exists, you may use it. Provide the abbreviation within brackets in the first in-text citation. Then, you can use that abbreviation for all subsequent entries.

Abbreviated group example – First parenthetical citation APA

The May 2011 study focused on percentages of tax money that goes to imprisonment over education funding (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP], 2011).

Abbreviated group example – Subsequent citations

The report found that over one half billion taxpayer dollars went to imprison residents “from 24 of New York City’s approximately 200 neighborhoods” (NAACP, 2011, p. 2).

Quick reminder: If you’re looking for a parenthetical citation APA website, check out the homepage of EasyBib.com. Our automatic generator makes full references and narrative /APA parenthetical citations for you!

For classical sources, such as ancient Greek works, it is necessary to provide not only the original publication date, but also the copyright date of the version or translation that you used for your research.

For the purpose of in-text citations, these two dates would be separated by a slash with no extra spaces:

Parenthetical citation in APA example – Classical work with translation

(Homer, ca. 800 B.C./1998).

Narrative example – Translated work

In Homer’s The Iliad (800 B.C./1998) …

With most Greek and Roman literature, the precise date of publication cannot be determined. In cases such as these, the approximate date is offered with the abbreviation “ca.”, which is short for “circa”.

Reference entry example  – Translated work

Homer. (1998). The Iliad (R. Fagles, Trans.). Penguin Classics. (Original work published ca. 800 B.C.E.)

When citing specific content from these sources, include the paragraph/line numbers that are used in classical works in the narrative or APA parenthetical citation. This information is consistent across versions/editions, and is the easiest way to locate direct quotes from classical works.

APA parenthetical example – Direct bible quotation

The Bible extols the virtues of love; “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud” ( New International Version, 1973/2018, 1 Cor. 13:4).

Narrative example – Direct bible quotation

In 1 Cor. 13:4 ( New International Version, 1978/2018), the Bible extols the virtues of love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

As you can see, it doesn’t matter if you’re creating a reference in the text for a book, website, journal article, or another source type in this format. All of your references in the text of your paper are formatted the same. If you’d like to learn how to create full APA citations for an APA book citation , APA journal , or APA citation website , we have the resources you need!

When directly quoting information from sources in your writing, you may need to format it differently depending on how many words are used.

If a quote runs on for more than 40 words:

• Start the direct quotation on a new line
• Indent the text roughly half an inch from the left margin
• If there are multiple paragraphs in the quotation, indent them an extra half inch
• Do not use quotation marks
• Double-space the text
• Add the in-text parenthetical citation APA after the final sentence

Use our grammar pages to ensure your words are organized and styled appropriately. Check out interjection , conjunction , and adverb , along with many others!

Parenthetical example – Block quotations

Here is some text from the book that clearly defines early on in the novel:

He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor (Fitzgerald, 2019, pp. 12-13).

Notice in the above APA parenthetical citation, a page range is included, marked by ‘pp.’ prior to the page numbers. If your quote is found on a single page, use ‘p.’ before the page number in the parenthetical citation APA reference.

Narrative example – Block quotations

Fitzgerald (2019) clearly defines early on in the novel:

He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced–or seemed to face–the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor (pp. 12-13).

Reference entry example

Fitzgerald, F. S. (2019). The great Gatsby. Cambridge University Press.

If you’re still confused on how to do parenthetical citations APA, learn more here . If you’re looking for a parenthetical citation APA website, check out the resources and tools on EasyBib.com!

Need another set of eyes to edit your paper? Run your paper through the EasyBib Plus proofreader, which checks each and every determiner , verb , pronoun , to make sure they’re where they’re supposed to be.

Visit our EasyBib Twitter feed to discover more citing tips, fun grammar facts, and the latest product updates.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Written and edited by Michele Kirschenbaum and Elise Barbeau. Michele Kirschenbaum is a dedicated school library media specialist and the in-house librarian at EasyBib.com. Elise Barbeau is the Citation Specialist at Chegg. She has worked in digital marketing, libraries, and publishing.

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all APA Examples

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A parenthetical citation is a piece of information given within the text to refer to a source listed in the reference list. It is the most commonly used in-text citation system. The information for the reference is provided within parentheses, usually at the end of the sentence. Here are templates and examples for sources with different numbers of authors.

One author:

(Duflo, 2011)

Two authors:

(Author 1 Last Name & Author 2 Last Name, Year Published)

(Rex & Ronald, 2017)

Three or more authors:

(Author 1 Last Name et al., Year Published)

(Chips et al., 2016)

Example in the text:

The literature has found evidence that teacher behavior responds to the skill composition of the class (Duflo, 2011).

A DOI (digital object identifier), in general, is not included in parenthetical citations or narrative citations. It appears only in the reference list entries.

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APA Style (7th Edition) Citation Guide: Websites

• Introduction
• Journal Articles
• Magazine/Newspaper Articles
• Books & Ebooks
• Government & Legal Documents
• Biblical Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Films/Videos/TV Shows
• How to Cite: Other
• Additional Help

Table of Contents

Entire Website - No Separate Pages or Sections

Page or Section from a Website

Note: All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

This Microsoft support page contains instructions about how to format a hanging indent in a paper.

It can sometimes be difficult to find out who the author of a website is. Remember that an author can be a corporation or group, not only a specific person. Author information can sometimes be found under an "About" section on a website.

If there is no known author, start the citation with the title of the website instead.

The best date to use for a website is the date that the content was last updated. Otherwise look for a copyright or original publication date. Unfortunately this information may not be provided or may be hard to find. Often date information is put on the bottom of the pages of a website.

If you do not know the complete date, put as much information as you can find. For example you may have a year but no month or day.

If an original publication date and a last updated date are provided, use the last updated date. If the more current date is "last reviewed" instead of "last updated," use the original publication date (since the review may not have changed the content).

If there is no date provided, put the letters (n.d.) in round brackets where you'd normally put the date.

Titles should be italicized when the document stands alone (e.g. books, reports, websites, etc.), but not when it is part of a greater whole (e.g. chapters, articles, webpages, etc.).

Website Name

Provide website names in title case without italics after titles of work. Include a period after the website name, followed by the URL. When the author of the work is the same as the website name, omit the site name from the reference.

Retrieval Date

If the content of a website is likely to change over time (e.g. Wikis), you must provide the date you last visited the website.

If a URL is too long to fit onto one line, try to break it at a slash (/).

Entire Website

Note: If you are quoting or paraphrasing part of a website, you should create a reference for a Page or Section. If you mention a website in general, do not create a reference list entry or an in-text citation. Instead, include the name of the website in the text and provide the URL in parentheses.

The Department of Justice has a site called ReportCrime.gov (https://www.reportcrime.gov/) to help people identify and report crimes in their area.

Note : If you cite multiple webpages from a website, create a reference for each. Include the date you retrieved the information if the content is likely to change over time.

Created by a Corporate or Group Author

Corporation/Group/Organization's Name. (Year website was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any). Website Name. URL

Example in which the content is unlikely to change over time:

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (2019, November 21). Justice served: Case closed for over 40 dogfighting victims . https://www.aspca.org/news/justice-served-case-closed-over-40-dogfighting-victims

Example in which the content is likely to change over time:

Adidas. (2020). Sustainability . Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://www.adidas.com/us/sustainability

Note: When the author and site name are the same, omit the site name in the reference.

In-Text Paraphrase:

(Corporation/Group's Name, Year)

Example: (Adidas, 2020)

In-Text Quote:

(Corporation/Group's Name, year, Section Name section, para. Paragraph Number if more than one paragraph in section)

Example: (Adidas, 2020, Sustainability section, para. 1)

Note: When there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from.

Abbreviating Corporation/Group Author Name in In-Text citations:

Author names for corporations/groups can often be abbreviated. The first time you refer to the author, provide the full name, along with the abbreviation.

If the group name appears in the text of your paper, include the abbreviation in the in-text parenthetical citation:

Example: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA, 2019) assisted in the rescue of 40 dogs.

If the group name first appears within a parenthetical citation, include the full group name as well as the abbreviation in square brackets:

Example: Forty dogs were rescued in Bendena, Kansas (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [ASPCA], 2019).

Provide the full group name (without an abbreviation) in the reference list entry: 

Created by an Individual Author 

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year website was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any). Website Name. URL

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist . Medium. https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01

Shillam, S. (2018). Message from the Dean . University of Portland. Retrieved October 1, 2018, from https://nursing.up.edu/about/index.html

(Author Last Name, Year)

Example: (Shillam, 2018)

(Author Last Name, Year, Section Name section, para. Paragraph Number if more than one paragraph in section)

Example: (Shillam, 2018, Message from the dean section, para. 2)

Created by an Unknown Author 

Title of page: Subtitle (if any). (Year website was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Website Name. URL

Example in which the content is unlikely to change over time (because the restaurant has closed) :

Jarra's Ethiopian Restaurant [Reviews]. (2012, November 9). Yelp. https://www.yelp.com/biz/jarras-ethiopian-restaurant-portland

Powell's City of Books [Reviews]. (2020, February 25). Yelp. Retrieved February 28, 2020, from https://www.yelp.com/biz/powells-city-of-books-portland-4

("Title," Year)

Example: ("Powell's City of Books," 2020)

("Title," Year, Section Name section, para. Paragraph Number if more than one paragraph in section)

Example: ("Powell's City of Books," 2020, Review Highlights)

Note: When there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from. In this example, there is only one paragraph under the specific heading, so no paragraph number is needed.

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• In-Text Citations

In APA style, you use parenthetical citations within the text of your paper to credit your sources, to show how recently your sources were published, and to refer your reader to a more detailed citation of the source in the reference list at the end of your paper. You should use parenthetical citations when you paraphrase, quote, or make any reference to another author's work. A parenthetical citation in APA style includes the author's last name as well as the year in which the work was published, with a comma between them. If you are referring directly to a specific page in the source, you should also include the page number in your parenthetical citation. APA requires you to cite page numbers when you are quoting directly from the source. If you are paraphrasing, which is more common in the social sciences, you generally do not need to include a page number. If you have questions about whether you should include page numbers when citing in APA, you should consult your instructor.

If you mention the author's name and/or the year of publication in the sentence preceding the citation, you do not need to include them in the parenthetical citation. When you name the author in the sentence, you should include the publication year in parentheses right after the author’s name—do not wait until the end of the sentence to provide that information.

When you include a parenthetical citation at the end of a sentence, the punctuation for your sentence appears after the citation.

Citing author and date in a parenthetical citation

When you don’t mention either the author or the date of publication in your sentence, you should include both the author and the year, separated by a comma, in the parenthetical citation. 

Colleges and universities need to create policies that foster inclusion for low-income students (Jack, 2019).         

Citing when author’s name is mentioned in body of paper

When you mention the author’s name in your sentence, the year of publication should immediately follow the author’s name.

Anthony Jack’s (2019) study of low-income students on an elite college campus revealed that these schools are often unprepared to support the students they admit.

Jack (2019) studied the ways low-income students experience elite college campuses.

Citing page numbers

When you cite a direct quote from the source or paraphrase a specific point from the source, you should include the page number in the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. When you refer to a specific page or pages of the text, first list the year of publication and then list "p." followed by the page number or "pp." followed by the range of pages. If you refer to a specific chapter, indicate that chapter after the year.              

The author contends that “higher education in America is highly unequal and disturbingly stratified” (Jack, 2019, p. 4).

Jack (2019) contends that “higher education in America is highly unequal and disturbingly stratified” (p. 4).

Citing sources with more than one author

When you cite a source that has two authors, you should separate their names with an ampersand in the parenthetical citation.

The authors designed a study to determine if social belonging can be encouraged among college students (Walton & Cohen, 2011). 

If a work has three or more authors , you should only include the first author's name followed by et al. ( Et al. is the shortened form of the Latin et alia , which means “and others.”)

The implementation of postpartum contraceptive programs is both costly and time consuming (Ling et al., 2020).

Attributing a point to more than one source  

To attribute a point or idea to multiple sources, list them in one parenthetical citation, ordered alphabetically by author and separated by semicolons. Works by the same author should be ordered chronologically, from oldest to most recent, with the publication dates separated by commas.

Students who possess cultural capital, measured by proxies like involvement in literature, art, and classical music, tend to perform better in school (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977; Dumais, 2002; Orr, 2003).

Citing multiple works by the same author 

If your reference list includes multiple works by the same author in the same year, identify them in your parenthetical citations and in your reference list by a lowercase letter after the year, assigning each letter in alphabetical order by the title of the work. When establishing the alphabetical order of works in your reference list, do not count the words "A" or "The" when they appear as the first word in a title.

One union-endorsed candidate publicly disagreed with the teachers' union on a number of issues (Borsuk, 1999a).

Citing multiple authors with the same last name        

If your reference list includes sources by multiple authors with the same last name, list each author's initials before their last name, even when the works were published in different years.

The question of whether a computer can be considered an author has been asked for longer than we might expect (B. Sobel, 2017).

Citing when no author is listed           

To refer to a work that is listed in your reference list by title rather than by author, cite the title or the first few words of the title.

The New York Times painted a bleak picture of the climate crisis (“Climate Change Is Not Negotiable,” 2022).

Citing when no date is listed

If the work you are citing has no date listed, you should put “n.d.” for “no date” in the parenthetical citation.

Writing research papers is challenging (Lam, n.d.). 

Citing a specific part of a source that is not a page number

To refer to a specific part of a source other than page number, add that after the author-date part of your citation. If it is not clear whether you are referring to a chapter, a paragraph, a time stamp, or a slide number, or other labeled part of a source, you should indicate the part you are referring to (chapter, para., etc.).

In the Stranger Things official trailer, the audience knows that something unusual is going to happen from the moment the boys get on their bicycles to ride off into the night (Duffer & Duffer, 0:16).

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Note:  This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style  can be found here .

Reference citations in text are covered on pages 261-268 of the Publication Manual. What follows are some general guidelines for referring to the works of others in your essay.

Note:  On pages 117-118, the Publication Manual suggests that authors of research papers should use the past tense or present perfect tense for signal phrases that occur in the literature review and procedure descriptions (for example, Jones (1998)  found  or Jones (1998)  has found ...). Contexts other than traditionally-structured research writing may permit the simple present tense (for example, Jones (1998)  finds ).

APA Citation Basics

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998). One complete reference for each source should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

If you are referring to an idea from another work but  NOT  directly quoting the material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication and not the page number in your in-text reference.

On the other hand, if you are directly quoting or borrowing from another work, you should include the page number at the end of the parenthetical citation. Use the abbreviation “p.” (for one page) or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing the page number(s). Use an en dash for page ranges. For example, you might write (Jones, 1998, p. 199) or (Jones, 1998, pp. 199–201). This information is reiterated below.

Regardless of how they are referenced, all sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.

In-text citation capitalization, quotes, and italics/underlining

• Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: D. Jones.
• If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source:  Permanence and Change . Exceptions apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs:  Writing New Media ,  There Is Nothing Left to Lose .

( Note:  in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized:  Writing new media .)

• When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word:  Natural-Born Cyborgs .
• Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: "Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of Hitchcock's  Vertigo ."
• If the title of the work is italicized in your reference list, italicize it and use title case capitalization in the text:  The Closing of the American Mind ;  The Wizard of Oz ;  Friends .
• If the title of the work is not italicized in your reference list, use double quotation marks and title case capitalization (even though the reference list uses sentence case): "Multimedia Narration: Constructing Possible Worlds;" "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry."

Short quotations

If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and page number for the reference (preceded by "p." for a single page and “pp.” for a span of multiple pages, with the page numbers separated by an en dash).

You can introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.

If you do not include the author’s name in the text of the sentence, place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation.

Long quotations

Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block of typewritten lines and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout, but do not add an extra blank line before or after it. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.

Because block quotation formatting is difficult for us to replicate in the OWL's content management system, we have simply provided a screenshot of a generic example below.

Formatting example for block quotations in APA 7 style.

Quotations from sources without pages

Direct quotations from sources that do not contain pages should not reference a page number. Instead, you may reference another logical identifying element: a paragraph, a chapter number, a section number, a table number, or something else. Older works (like religious texts) can also incorporate special location identifiers like verse numbers. In short: pick a substitute for page numbers that makes sense for your source.

Summary or paraphrase

If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference and may omit the page numbers. APA guidelines, however, do encourage including a page range for a summary or paraphrase when it will help the reader find the information in a longer work.