APA style is a method of writing papers in the behavioral sciences and is the most widely used citation system here at Trinity. The American Psychological Association created this system, which has been in use since the 1920's. APA style has evolved over the years to include guidance on how to cite sources from articles in academic journals to tweets. APA is more than just your references- it also has rules for how you structure your paper.
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The following are some of the most popular source types for citing. If you have a question about a particular type of source not listed or a special case, please consult the APA Publication Manual, or contact the library or Writing Center.
In-text Citations
In-text citations follow a basic format of (Last Name, Year, Page #). If your source is an online document or webpage without page numbers, you can count the paragraphs until you get to the paragraph with your quote or paraphrase. Your instructor may not require a page number or paragraph number for in-text citations, so be sure to check with them.
Articles in Scholarly Journals
Reference List: Last Name, A. A., Last Name, B. B., & Last Name, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. http://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyyy (if available)
Sledge, S. (2015). An examination of corporate social responsibility practices and firm preferences in U.S. corporations.
Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 14(2), 171-184.
Newspaper Articles (Note that in newspaper article citations, the page numbers are preceded by p. or pp. for multiple pages if you used the physical newspaper. If you found the article online, do not include the pages at the end of the reference. Instead, use a "Retrieved from" statement with the URL of the article.)
Reference List: Last Name, A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. pp. #- #.
Levy, J. A. (2017, October 8). Good corporate citizenship won't end racism. The Washington Post, pp. 3A-4A.
Webpages
Reference List: Last Name, A. (Year). Title of webpage article or post. Retrieved from http://Web address
Robb, W. (2015). Our animal welfare standards: Separating fact from fiction. Retrieved from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/our-animal-welfare-standards-separating-fact-fiction
Reports
Reference List: Last Name, A. (Year). Title of report. Retrieved from http://Web address
Fair Trade International (2017). Creating innovations, scaling up impact: Annual report 2016-2017. Retrieved from
https://annualreport16-17.fairtrade.net/en/
Books
Reference list: Last Name, A. A. (Year). Title of work: Subtitle. Location: Publisher.
Chandler, D. (2016). Strategic corporate responsibility: Stakeholders, globalization, and sustainable value creation.
Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.
APA style is more than just citing, you also have to format your paper to APA guidelines. Here are the basics to keep in mind:
I can't find an author!
If no author is listed (remember, sometimes the author can be an organization!), skip it and go straight to listing the title.
There's no date on my source.
No date? Use (n.d.) to signify that the date is missing. (n.d.) can be used both in your in-text citation and your reference list entry. Example: (Porter's 5 Factors Model, (n.d))
What do I do if there are no page numbers, like on a website?
When there are no page numbers, you can count the paragraphs until you get to your quote or paraphrased information for your in-text citation. Example: (Smith, para. 4)
What do I capitalize when it comes to titles?
Titles of works in your references list use sentence casing, where you only capitalize the first word of the title, the first word of the subtitle (what comes after a colon (:)), and any proper nouns. Example: Strategic corporate social responsibility: Stakeholders, globalization, and sustainable value creation. When you use the title of a source in your paper, use title casing, where you capitalize all major words (words over 4 letters) in the title. Example: Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders, Globalization, and Sustainable Value Creation
(P.S.! If a source stands on its own, like a report or a book title, use italics. If it is a part of a greater work, like a chapter in a book or an article from a scholarly journal, do not use italics)