How to: Help Me Make an APA Citation

A proper citation of a reference in the style of the American Psychological Association requires precise spacing, punctuation, order and format. APA publishes one of three major style guides - the Modern Language Association guide and the Chicago Manual of Style being the other two. To properly cite in the APA format, you will need to follow a few basic rules.

Instructions

    • 1

      Indent all lines after the first line of your citation on the reference list one-half inch from the left margin.

    • 2

      Begin with the name of the author, putting the last name first. List up to seven authors if you have multiple authors, giving the last name and initials for the authors that follow the first one. If there are more than seven authors, list six authors, and then place ellipses after that last author's name.

    • 3

      Include the year of publication in parentheses immediately after the name of the author(s).

    • 4

      List title of the author's work immediately after. Italicize the title only if it is a longer work, like a book or a journal. Capitalize all major words for journals, but capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle for books, chapters, Web pages and other works.

    • 5

      List the location where the work was published or performed, followed by a colon and then the name of the publisher.

    • 6

      Include relevant reference points such as page numbers after the title where applicable.

    • 7

      Include the web address if you are citing an online source, preceded by "Retrieved from," where you would normally put the location and publisher.

    • 8

      Alphabetize the reference list by the first name of the first author in the reference.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved