APA Style CitationsAPA Style citations are used in the body of your paper to give credit to the sources of your information. Each citation has a corresponding reference at the end of the paper that gives the details. Both follow standardized formats.Use citations whenever you state any information that is not your own--ideas, theories, and findings of other authors who have published credible documents Be particularly careful to identify works from which you've extracted statistics. Giving credit not only strengthens your own paper, it may also prevent you from being accused of plagiarism if it appears that you are presenting the work of others as your own. The basic citation format includes the last name of the author and the year. It signals the reader where to find the full reference. For example,at the beginning or a sentence: Smith (2009) indicated that aspirin is the most effective remedy for relieving headache pain in college students. Or, at the end of a sentence: Aspirin is the most effective remedy for relieving headache pain in college students(Smith, 2009). Before deciding to include Smith's fact in your paper, be sure that the source is a credible one. If Smith is a researcher whose work has been published in a professional journal, that's great--very strong source! But if Boo Boo Smith is your partying buddy who claims that aspirin works best for hangover headaches, it won't help your scholarly credibility regardlesss of whether or not Boo Boo's assertion agrees with the literature even if he has published it on his website. What if the document you are citing does not have an author? Usually, you will find a group author (e.g., American Psychological Association, National Heart Association, University of Tennessee). Use the same format replacing the author with the group--American Psychological Association (2010). What if Smith was really a credible authority on headaches and you corresponded with him and he made a statement that he had not yet published? Use the personal communication format: B. Smith (personal communication, January 28, 2002) stated that... This type of citation is not included in the reference list because it the information is not recoverable. For more on APA Style citations and references, please refer to the American Psychological Association Tutorials or the sources at the right. In addition, most college and university websites post quick-reference highlights. The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is an excellent example. Related pages:
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