Skip to Main Content
This Is Auburn Auburn University Libraries LibGuides

Communication

This guide provides you with an overview of library resources and services for Communication

Chemistry/ Chemical Engineering/Communications & JournalismLibrarian

Profile Photo
Isabel Altamirano
she/her
Contact:
231 Mell St.
Auburn, AL 36849
Student Question/Office Hour - Tuesdays, noon to 1 p.m. Library Help Desk personnel can call me. I will meet you at the Desk. Other times are available, including evenings and weekends, but it will be held on Zoom.

General

  • The author-date system is used for in-text citations.
  • See Table 6.1 on page 177 of the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for quick information about in-text citation for varying numbers and types of authors.

When to Cite

From page 169 of the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

  • Cite anyone "whose ideas, theories or research have directly influenced your work"
  • Cite "all facts or figues which are not common knowledge"
  • "Citation of an article implies that you have personally read the cited work"

Examples of Two Type of In-Text Citations

Citation using authors' names in sentence

         Smith and Jones (2013) found that using .....

Parenthetical citation

         ... as was discovered earlier (Smith & Jones, 2013).

Other examples for various numbers and types of authors appear on pages 174-179

First and subsequent citations for the same source may be different depending on number and/or type of authors. See Table 6.1 on page 177 for a convenient listing.

(All page numbers refer to the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association)

Can I cite at the end of the paragraph if everything in a paragraph is from one article?

In short, no!!

APA requires that you cite each sentence in which you paraphrase, describe, or directly quote from another's ideas, works, or research.

Remember, in a professional paper, you should be synthesizing information not just summarizing. Many times when this question comes up, students are really just using individual paragraphs to summarize individual articles. Instead of summarizing, you should probably look  for ways in which your various articles agree/disagree and what unique points or insights appear in each so that you can combine (synthesize) the information to write a much more robust  paragraph. If you only have one article which addresses a particular portion of your paper, you may need to find additional information(articles).

More information about this can be found on the APA styleblog, http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/03/citing-paraphrased-work-in-apa-style.html.