Introducing APA Referencing
Possibly the most common referencing style is the American Psychological Association (APA). That's because it basically combines both Harvard and MLA referencing.
The American Psychological Association developed this referencing style.
APA referencing is a citation style used in academic writing to acknowledge the sources of information and ideas used in a paper or article.
APA referencing is a widely used method for citing sources in academic writing, particularly in the social sciences, psychology, education, and business.
What is APA Referencing?
The APA referencing style follows the author-date citation format.
The writer inserts the author's last name and date of publication in the text to credit the original author. This is to prove that you, as a writer, aren’t cheating, and you’re acknowledging the effort of those who first wrote that piece of information.
This citation style also makes research papers easier to understand.
Sources are cited in the same format every single time, so the reader can easily follow up with the sources and evaluate the research.
Why use APA Referencing?
The purpose of APA referencing is to provide a standardized and consistent way to cite sources in academic writing, particularly in the social sciences, psychology, education, and business.
The American Psychological Association (APA) developed this referencing style to facilitate accurate and clear attribution of sources in academic writing.
Using the APA referencing style you can avoid plagiarism, give credit to the publishing author, provide evidence for the argument you are making in your paper, and to adhere to ethical academic practice.
How to use APA Referencing
APA referencing involves two components: in-text citations and a reference list.
Using Citations in APA Referencing:
In-text citations are brief references to sources that are inserted into the text of a paper or article.
These citations include the author's surname and the year of publication of the work being cited, such as (Smith, 2021).
If there are multiple authors, all the authors' surnames are listed in the citation, separated by commas, with an ampersand before the final author's name, such as (Jones, Smith, & Brown, 2020).
If there are three or more authors, only the first author's surname is listed, followed by "et al.", such as (Johnson et al., 2019).
Creating an APA Reference List:
The reference list is a complete list of all the sources cited in the paper or article and is located at the end of the document.
Each entry in the reference list includes the author's surname, the year of publication, the title of the work, the publisher or journal, and the publication details.
The reference list is arranged alphabetically by the author's surname.
To Cite and Reference a Book in APA Referencing Style:
If you were to include a summary from a book in your essay the APA in-text citation might look like this example:
Clear (2018) advocates for making small changes each day that are enjoyable and achievable, over time the impact of these changes will compound to deliver accumulated results.
If you were to paraphrase from a book in your assignment the APA in-text citation might look like this example:
Introducing a small change that you enjoy, can achieve and that can be repeated daily will accumulate to deliver compound results (Clear, 2018).
In the Reference List, the corresponding APA reference for the book might look like this example:
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones. Random House Business.
How is APA Referencing Different from Other Styles?
Various citation styles differ in how the title, in-text citations, and references are created.
The APA referencing style is commonly used in technical works, and it follows the author’s name followed by the date format.
The MLA style is another citation style that is mainly used for humanities research such as literature. It uses the author-page number style for citation.
The Chicago style is mostly used in historical and business writing. It uses the author’s name and page number, but the year of publication isn’t mentioned. Moreover, footnotes can also be used to cite your sources instead of in-text citation.
For Help Referencing in APA Referencing Style
If you want more information on formatting your referencing in the APA Style of Referencing check out the APA Referencing Crib Sheet page.
