In-text citations are brief notations within the body of your written assignment. They point your readers to the full citation in the reference list at the end of the paper. The in-text citation typically includes author(s) last name, date of publication, and sometimes pinpoints like page or paragraph number(s). The in-text citation leads your readers to the reference list which has further details about the sources cited in your assignment. Match the author and date of your in-text citations to your reference list entry.
Cite your sources in-text by using either the parenthetical or narrative format. The examples below demonstrate how to cite a direct quote in both formats.
Among journalists, plagiarism has become a well known issue. In fact, to a certain extent, “Every journalist lives in fear of inadvertent plagiarism” (Renzetti, 2010, para. 8).
Renzetti (2010) attributes the rise in inadvertent plagiarism to a number of key developments. First, they claim that the widespread availability of technology has created a “mash-up generation” that assumes everything is free game (para. 3). In addition, they state that …
NOTE: Page/paragraph numbers are only required for direct quotations unless otherwise requested by your instructor.
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Narrative |
Parenthetical |
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1 author |
Smith (2020) showed ... (p. 5). |
(Smith, 2020, p. 5). |
2 authors |
Smith and Singh (2020) stated ... (pp. 5-6). |
(Smith & SIngh, 2020, pp. 5-6). |
3+ authors |
Smith et al. (2020) explained ... (para. 4). |
(Smith et al., 2020, para. 4). |
Group author |
Sheridan College (2020) describes ... (Introduction section, para. 3). |
(Sheridan College, 2020, Introduction section, para. 3). |
Group author with common abbreviation |
First citation: American Psychological Association (APA, 2020) points out ... (p. 20). Subsequent citations: APA (2020) asserts ... (p. 20). |
(American Psychological Association [APA], 2020, p. 20). (APA, 2020, p. 20) |
No author Replace the author name with the title. Capitalize each word of the title. Titles of books, webpages and reports are italicized, and titles of articles and other documents are put in quotation marks.
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Works that stand alone: Works that are part of a whole: |
NOTE: Page/paragraph numbers are only required for direct quotations unless otherwise requested by your instructor. Page numbers are preferred. If there is no page number, an alternate location can be used.
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In-text Citation |
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Page Number |
(Author, Year, p. 25) |
Multiple pages |
(Author, Year, pp. 11-12) (Author, Year, pp. 13, 24, 80) |
Paragraph Number |
(Author, Year, para. 8) |
Section Heading Use quotation marks only if shortening the title of the section heading
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(Author, Year, Introduction section, para. 3) (Author, Year, "History of Social Work", para. 5) |
See section 8.10–8.36 of the Publication Manual
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