ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

APA Citation and Reference Details

1. Basic book format

Citation
(Clasen, 1995, p. 213).
Reference
Clasen, T. F. (1995). Foreign trade and investment: A legal guide (2nd ed.).
Charlottesville, VA: Michie Butterworth.
2. Basic article format
Citation
(Cronin, 2000, p. 785)
Reference
Cronin, J. E. (2000). Convergence by conviction: Politics and economics in the
emergence of the "Anglo-American model." Journal of Social History, 33, 781804.
Note the lack of quotation marks around the article title. Note also that the volume
number is italicized (or underlined) along with the journal title. If the journal restarts
page numbers with each issue, it's necessary to indicate the particular issue, either by
number or other identifier used by the journal. This is placed in parentheses, and
follows the volume number with no space.
Hoellering, M. F. (1995). International arbitration under U.S. law and AAA rules.
Dispute Resolution Journal, 50(January), 25-36.
3. Two or more works by the same author
Citation. The name-year format makes it easy to point to a specific work even if you
are citing various works by an author:
Hoellering assesses the advantages and disadvantages of mediation versus
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ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

arbitration (1994a).
Reference. Works by the same author are arranged chronologically, earliest to latest.
Works with the same publication year are distinguished by letters added to the year
(again arranged chronologically).

Hoellering, M. F. (1994a). World tradeto arbitrate or mediate? Dispute Resolution

Journal, 49(March), 67-9.
Hoellering, M. F. (1994b). The role of arbitration institutions in managing
international commercial arbitration. Dispute Resolution Journal, 49 (June), 1218.
Hoellering, M. F. (1995). International arbitration under U.S. law and AAA
rules. Dispute Resolution Journal, 50(January), 25-36.
Hoellering, M. F., & Goetz, P. (1992). Piercing the veil: Document discovery in
arbitration hearings. Arbitration Journal 47(September), 58-60, 65.

As the last entry above shows, if a particular author is also listed as a co-author, that
work is referred to by its co-authors and is alphabetized separately.

4. Chapter from an anthology

Citation. No different than a normal citation: (Moore, 1993, p. 195). Cite the author of
the specific text you wish to refer to in the citation, not the editor of the whole book
(unless you're referring to the whole book, of course).
Reference
Moore, H. L. (1993). The differences within and the differences between. In
T. del Valle (Ed.), Gendered Anthropology (pp. 193-204). London and New
York: Routledge.

ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

5. Work with an unknown author

Citation. If no author information is given, cite by the first few words of the title
(indicating that this is title by putting it in quotation marks). If the author is listed as
"Anonymous," use that plus the date in anormal author-date citation (Anonymous,
2000).
Reference. If no author is given, alphabetize by the title. If the author is listed as
"Anonymous," alphabetize by that.
Anonymous. (2000). Conversation with a banker who wishes to remain
anonymous. Russian social science review: A journal of translations, 41(2), 48.
A, An, and The are disregarded (but not deleted) when alphabetizing references by
title.
6. Article from an anonymous reference book
Citation. Cite the title or a short version. Split infinitives became more common in the
19th century ("Split Infinitive," 1989).
Reference
Split Infinitive. (1989). The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage.
Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.
7. Introduction to a book (when the authors differ)
Citation. Cite the author of the introduction, not the author of the whole work.
Rome as a historical and cultural icon was a powerful influence on St.
Augustine (O'Meara, 1972, pp. xxi-xxv). \
Reference
O'Meara, J. (1972). Introduction. In Augustine, Concerning the City of God
Against the Pagans (pp. vii-xxxv). Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.

ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

8. Two authors with the same last name

Citation. Specifying the year usually eliminates ambiguity. If not, add the author's first
initial(s): (C. L. Parker, 1998, 225-37).
Reference
Parker, C. L (1998). The reformation of community: Social welfare and Calvinist
charity in Holland, 1572-1620. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Parker, G. (1998). The grand strategy of Philip II. Yale University Press.
If one of the authors is part of a collaboration, there will be no confusion of citations
(Wilson, 2000; Wilson & Adkins, 2000).

9. Work by two authors

Citation. Give the last name of each author: (Wildavsky & Drake, 1990, p. 44). If you
cite the names in the text instead of putting them in the parenthetical, spell out and:
"Wildavsky and Drake (1990) arguethat. . . ."
Reference
Wildavsky, A., & Drake, K. (1990). Theories of risk perception: Who fears what
and why? Daedalus 119, 41-60.

10. Work by three, four, or five authors

Citation. For the first citation of the work, cite all the authors. In any subsequent
citations, give the first author's last name followed by et al. (an abbreviation of he
Latin for and others).
First citation: Donn, Routh, and Lunt (2000) explore the history of clinical
training . . .
Subsequent citations: (Donn et al., 2000, p. 426).

ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

Reference. List all the authors.

Donn, J. E.; Routh, D. K., & Lunt, I. (2000). From Leipzig to Luxembourg (via
Boulder and Vail): A history of clinical psychology training in Europe and the
United States. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 31, 423-428.

11. Work by six or more authors

Citation. Cite only the first author's last name, followed by et al.: Jansen et al., 1999,
p. 223.
Reference. Follow the format for other multiple-author works.

12. Work by a corporate author (an organization)

Citation. Treat the organization as the author, and cite the name or a short version of
it: (Modern Language Association)
Reference
United Nations. (1999). Rome statute of the international criminal court. Social
Justice, 26(4), 125-143.

13. Multivolume workreferencing one volume

Citation. As usualauthor-year format: (Lay, Churchill, & Nordquist, 1973, pp. 21728).
Reference
Lay, S. H.; Churchill, R.; & Nordquist, M. (Eds.). (1973). New directions in the
law of the sea: Documents. (Vol. 3). Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications.

If you cite other volumes, give them separate entries in the list of references.
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ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

14. Government publication

Citation. Use as much of the author as necessary to identify the reference.
Reference
United States. Congress (106th, 1st session). Senate. (1999). Impeachment of
President William Jefferson Clinton: The evidentiary record pursuant to S. Res.
16. 24 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Legal documents are presented in plain text (no italics or underlining).

15. Published by the author
Citation. As usual.
Reference
National Institute of Mental Health. (2000). Child and adolescent violence
research at the National Institute of Mental Health. Bethesda, MD: Author.

16. Magazine article

Some periodicals (such as The Economist) routinely use different titles for articles on
the contents page and at the beginning of the article itself. In such cases, use the title
from the contents page.
Citation. For the date give only the year.
Right
(Thomas and Turque, 2000, p.40)

Wrong
(Thomas and Turque, 2000, August 21,
p.40)

ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

Reference
Thomas, E., & Turque, B. (2000, August 21). Gore: The precarious prince.
Newsweek, 38-41.
17. Anonymous magazine article
Citation. Identify by a short version of the title: ("Preserving life").
Reference
Preserving life on other planets. (2000, July 29). The Economist, 79.

18. Newspaper article

Citation. As usual.
Reference

Hoagland, Jim. (2000, August 20). The Concord and the Kursk. Washington
Post, B7.
19. Unsigned editorial or article
Citation. Identify by a short title.
Reference. Alphabetize by the first substantive word (disregard but don't delete a, an,
and the) and se a label in brackets.
A right to discriminate? [Editorial]. (2000, August 20). Washington Post, B6.

ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

20 Book review
Citation. As usual.
Reference
Maass, Peter. (2000, August 27). The horror [Review of the book Me against my
brother: At war in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda]. Washington Post Book World,
9.

21. More than one work in a single reference

Citation. Use semicolons to separate the citations: (Pitkin, 1984, pp. 38-41; Johnson,
2000, p. 203).
Reference. As usual for each work.
But avoid putting too many works in a single reference. It's usual to use one note per
work. If you wish to group several works together, treat them in a note rather than
with an in-text citation.
22. Second or subsequent edition
Citation. As usual.
Reference
Clasen, T. F. (1995). Foreign trade and investment: A legal guide (2nd ed.).
Charlottesville, VA: Michie Butterworth.

23. Indirect source (when you want to cite a work discussed in another text)
Citation. Whenever possible use original texts. If you do cite an indirect source (for
instance a bookreview), name or refer to the original work in your text, giving a
citation for the indirect source (using the phrase "as cited in").
Bilbao's work (as cited in Jeffers & Cuellar, 1999) tries a new approach. . . .
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ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

Reference. Refer to the secondary or indirect source, not the original text. In other
words, give a reference to the text you actually looked at.

APA Internet citations and references

Student citations from the web are often inadequate. Here's an all-too-common kind
of citation: www.hoovers.com.
What's missing? Lotsinformation about the type of online resource, a specific URL
to a particular document, and data on author, title, when online material was posted,
and when you retrieved it (that means when you downloaded or printed the
information, not when you wrote it into your paper). It's important to provide dates
because the web is a dynamic medium, with content and web sites
constantlychanging.
Citations of online documents follow the same basic format as other APA references:
alphabetization by author (or title), a title, and publication information. One
difference: references to online documents typically have two dates, the date the
material was posted or updated, and the date it was retrieved. Since the web is a
dynamic medium with content and web sites constantly changing, it's important to
note retrieval dates.
The following style formats are based on the APA's most recent electronic reference
formats, which are available online (http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html). The
online version of Nuts and Bolts will stay current with future updates to APA's
guidelines. One distinctive feature of APA's guidelines for electronic references: no
period is used after the URL which ends the reference.

What are you citing?

Not all citations of online material need a reference. If you're citing a whole site but
not a particular document within it, don't include a reference. All you need is an intext citation of the site's URL:
Yahoo! is one of the best places to start an online search when you don't know
much about a topic (http://www.yahoo.com).
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ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

But if the citations are to different documents it's best to put in a separate reference for
each, even if they're accessed from the same home page. Keep in mind the underlying
rationale: what will make it easier for readers to find your sources for themselves?
WRONG
Compared to its chief online competitor, Barnes & Noble, an old company whose
history goes back to 1873, Amazon.com is an upstart, having been founded in 1994
(Hoover's Online, 2000).
The bibliographic entry
Hoover's Online. (2000). Company profiles. Hoover's Inc. Retrieved August 23, 2000
from the World Wide Web: http://www.hoovers.com

RIGHT
Compared to its chief online competitor, Barnes & Noble, an old company whose
history goes back to 1873, Amazon.com is an upstart, having been founded in 1994
("Barnes & Noble," 2000; "Amazon," 2000).
The bibliographic entries
Amazon.com, Inc. (2000). Hoover's Inc. Retrieved August 23, 2000 from the World
Wide Web: http://www.hoovers.com/premium/profile/3/0,2147,51493,00.html
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (2000). Hoover's, Inc. Retrieved August 23, 2000 from the
World Wide Web: http://www.hoovers.com/premium/profile/3/0,2147,16513,00.html

The page problem

One complication of online documents is that they usually lack page numbers, so it's
not easy to point readers to particular passages. In order to direct readers as closely as
possible to the right source passage, the APA recommends counting by paragraphs
using the symbol : (Ford, 2000, 5). If this symbol is not available, use the
abbreviation "para.": (Ford, 2000, para. 5; Firestone, 2000, paras. 7-9).
It's also useful to look for pointers in the online document like division numbers,
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ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

section titles or words like Introduction Conclusion.

What's your source?
Another source of confusion with online documents is the profusion of uncontrolled
copies of texts. With the way the web works, anyone can upload any document they
want to. In general, make sure that if you're quoting from an article or other text, you
try to track down the copyright holder or other responsible organization, rather than
taking the text and URL from a personal page or other idiosyncratic source. That
increases the chances you'll get a good copy and reassure readers about your scholarly

1. Private or personal web site

Citation. Name the site and its author; include the URL in a parenthetical.
Reference. No reference.
2. Organizational or corporate web site
Citation. Name the site and its author; include the URL in a parenthetical.
Reference. No reference.
3. Online book
Citation. As usual: author and year of publication.
Reference
Flanagan, D. (1997). Java in a Nutshell. Retrieved July 1, 2000 from the World
Wide Web: http://onlinebooks.ora.com/modbin/books.mod/javaref/javanut/
index.htm
4. Online book or similar independent document, no author
Citation. As with other anonymous works: by short title and date: (Electronic
reference formats, 2000).
Reference
Electronic reference formats recommended by the American Psychological
Association. (2000, August 22). Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association. Retrieved August 29, 2000, from the World Wide Web:
http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html
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ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

5. Article in an online journal or magazine

Citation. As usual.
Reference
Edelstein, D. (2000, August 18). Pols on film. Slate Magazine. Retrieved August
21, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://slate.msn.com/MovieReview/00-0818/MovieReview.asp
6. Newspaper article
Citation. As usual.
Reference
Dowd, M. (2000, August 20). Stop That Canoodling! New York Times on the
Web. Retrieved August 21, 2000 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/dowd/082000dowd.html

Other types of textseditorials, letters to the editor, reviews, and so on, parallel the
usual APA citation style (see above), with the use of online information (most
importantly retrieval date and URL) instead of page information.
7. Other Web materials
Citation. As usualby author or, if necessary, short title, as well as date. If a title is
used, make sure to put it in quotation marks: ("Microstrategy," 2000).
Reference. When possible put a descriptive phrase after the title (e.g., chart, MP3,
video, photograph, map).

Microstrategy, Inc.(2000, August 20). [Chart]. Washington Post. Retrieved

August. 20, 2000 from the World Wide Web:
http://financial.washingtonpost.com/graph.asp?ticker=MSTR

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ENG160 Writing a term/research paper with citation and reference in APA Style

8. Forum or conference posting

Citation. As usual: (Jensen, 2000).
Reference
Jensen, William. (2000, April 17). Re: Question About Grading Essays. Online
course posting. Retrieved July 18, 2000 from the World Wide Web:
http://tychousa.umuc.edu/BMGT110/5218/class.nsf/conference/value.htm

9. Email
Citation. Email is cited as a form of personal communication: (T. Scout, personal
communication, September 21, 2000).
Reference. As with other personal communication citations, no reference is given.
In its online document on electronic reference formats, the APA cautions that email
poses special problems of verifiability, since it's easy to send email in another's name.
Authors should take pains to establish the accuracy of any cited email
communication, and bear the responsibility for its accuracy.

Source:
p. 28-37 Honours Project Handbook, Department of English Language and Literature,
HKSYU

Useful website:
http://www.apastyle.org/index.aspx
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/677/01/

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