APA 7th Edition: The Basics of APA In-text Citations | Scribbr 🎓, by Scribbr on YouTube. 3 min 48 s.
- Video length
- 3 min 48 s
- Time to do it
- 10 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Write the author's last name and the year of publication in brackets, separated by a comma. For example: (Smith, 2020). This is the basic parenthetical citation.
Add a page number when you quote directly or paraphrase a specific passage. Put it after the year with a p. or pp. label, like (Smith, 2020, p. 45).
For a parenthetical citation, place the whole bracket at the end of the sentence, before the full stop. The reader sees the source after the idea.
For a narrative citation, put the author's name in the sentence and the year in brackets right after it. For example: Smith (2020) argues that...
For two authors, name both every time and join them with an ampersand in brackets or the word and in running text: (Smith & Jones, 2020).
For three or more authors, write only the first author's name followed by et al. and the year: (Smith et al., 2020).
If the source has no author, use the first few words of the title in place of the name, in quotation marks for an article or italics for a book, plus the year.
If the source has no date, write n.d. in the year spot, like (Smith, n.d.). If page numbers are missing, leave that part out.
Tips and common mistakes
Match every in-text citation to a full entry in your reference list so readers can find the source.
Use et al. only for three or more authors, not for two.
Put the citation before the full stop, not after it.
Keep the ampersand inside brackets and the word and in narrative sentences.
Questions
Do I need a page number for every citation?
No. Page numbers are required for direct quotes and are recommended for paraphrases of a specific passage. General summaries of a whole work can leave them out.
What do I do if the author and year are the same for two sources?
Add a lowercase letter after the year, like 2020a and 2020b, and use the same letters in your reference list to tell them apart.
How do I cite a website with no author or date?
Use a shortened title in place of the author and n.d. for the year, for example ("Climate Change," n.d.).
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
