Identify which of your pieces of information are necessary to cite. Cite references when you use direct quotations, paraphrased or summarized information, statistics or supplementary details. Cite the necessary pieces of information both within the text of the outline, in parentheses, and after the conclusion of your outline in a reference list format.
Format in-text citations for an outline according to APA guidelines. List the author's last name first followed by the year of publication; separate the two with a comma and a space. Add the page number at the end of the citation after an additional comma and space ("Lewis, 1999, p. 39"), if using a direct quote from a source.
Make alterations to these rules as APA guidelines allow. Omit the author's last name if previously mentioned in the sentence that the citation follows: "Johnson has found little data to support this claim (2007)." Include multiple last names if necessary. Use an ampersand to separate two authors' names. Separate three to five authors with commas and a final ampersand in the first citation ("Douglas, Andrews, Nelson & Jones") and use "et al." in subsequent ones ("Douglas et al."). Use "et al." for all citations using six or more authors.
Consult an APA style guide to format each of your outline's reference list citations, as one-of-a-kind formatting is required depending on the type of source and number of authors. Include every source that is referenced in your in-text citations. Center the word "References" at the top of the list. Double-space your reference list and use a hanging indent for each entry. Invert author names and alphabetize the list by author's last name; use the first author in a multiauthor work for alphabetizing.