APA Style (7th Edition) Guide: In-text citations

• The author appears within the text
• The date appears in parentheses after the author’s name

Here is an example of a narrative citation:

• Springer & Ellis (2019) noted a decline in approval of lesser gun control legislation from 86% to 49%.

• Direct quotes should be used sparingly
• Should include author, date, page number(s), whether it be parenthetical or narrative
• Short quotations (40 words or less) are within the text and enclosed in quotations
• For parenthetical citations, it can be placed at the beginning o the end of the quote
• For narrative citations, author and year are within the sentence and page number is in parentheses at the end of the quote
• The date appears in parentheses after the author’s name

Here are a few examples (2 authors, 1 author, more than 3 authors) of a direct quote:

• Springer & Ellis (2019) noted “a decline in approval of lesser gun control legislation from 86% to 49%” (p. 38).
• In 2019, Springer argued that “a decline in approval of lesser gun control legislation from 86% to 49%” (p. 62) was enough evidence for legislation.
• “A decline in approval of lesser gun control legislation from 86% to 49%”, wrote Springer et al. (2019, p. 301) was enough evidence.
• “A decline in approval of lesser gun control legislation from 86% to 49%” (Springer et al., 2019, p. 301).

• Secondary sources should be used sparingly
• The reference list entry should be for the secondary source used

A source cited in another source or a secondary source. To cite a secondary source use the phrase ”as cited in” after the primary source and before the secondary source. The primary source is the source not read or used and the secondary source is the source used or read

Here is an example of citing a secondary source

• High schools are pressured to act as ''social service centers, and they don't do that well” (Harrison, 2001, as cited in Peterson, 2016)

• Block quotations are 40 words or more
• do not enclose in quotations
• starts in a new line and is indented .5 in.
• entire block quotation is double-spaced
• block quotation does not have period at the end

Here is an example block quotation with parenthetical citation

Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves:

Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people’s everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)

Here is an example block quotation with narrative citation                                  

Perez et al. (2018) described how they addressed potential researcher bias when working with an intersectional community of transgender people of color:

Everyone on the research team belonged to a stigmatized group but also held privileged identities. Throughout the research process, we attended to the ways in which our privileged and oppressed identities may have influenced the research process, findings, and presentation of results. (p. 311)