text citation in apa style Text Citation in APA Style With Guidelines

It is a mandatory requirement of APA Style that you acknowledge the authors and scholars whose ideas, thoughts, theories, formulas and concepts you are using either directly or indirectly in the content formation of your research paper and essay. This is done to ensure that your work is free of plagiarism.

Text citation in APA style is usually done in the ‘author-publication date’ style. It is different from the conventional reference and bibliography as here the acknowledgement of any adopted idea is given within the text. There are various styles of making text citation in the research paper. However, a common practice is that the author-publication is expressed in three different styles;

1. When citation is done in the beginning of a sentence, you need to mention the name of the author and after a single space, write the date of publication in parentheses.

          Blake (2004)…

2. Another way to include citation at the beginning of a sentence is that you write the year first followed by a comma and then the author’s name.

          In 2004, Blake…

3. You can also cite the name of the author and date at the ending of the sentence, before putting a period. In this style, the name of author and date will be enclosed in parentheses.

           …(Blake, 2004).

Mentioning the Name of 2 Authors

In case, you have to mention the name of two authors, then arrange the surnames of the authors in alphabetical order and then cite with the date of publication.

  • (Dewdney & Ross, 1994)…
  • In 1994, Dewdney & Ross…
  • …(Dewdney & Ross, 1994)

Mentioning the Name of More Than 2 Authors

 If the number of authors are more than two then you will again mention the surnames of the authors in alphabetical order and then cite with publication date. However, if the number of authors are six or more, then you need to only mention the name of the first author followed by et al.

  • Peffer et al. (1997)…
  • In 1997, Peffer et al…
  • … (Peffer et al., 1997)

When Author Belongs to An Organization or a Government Agency

In this case, you need to spell its full name or abbreviation in every citation.

  • (Association of College and Research Libraries [ACRL], 1996)
  • (ACRL, 1996)
  • ACRL (1996)…