Manuel S.

Enverga University Foundation

ON AUTONOMOUS STATUS
Basic Education Department, Secondary School Level
Lucena City, Philippines

APA Writing Style 7th Edition:

In-Text Citations
Before writing the body of the research paper, it is important to know first the
basics in in-text citations using the APA Writing Style (7th edition) and apply it
throughout the paper. Documenting Sources helps you to avoid plagiarism. Moreover,
using the APA writing style, your research paper will follow a standard format that is
presentable and easy to understand by the readers.

LET’S GO AND LEARN!

“"When you have wit of your own, it's a pleasure to credit other
people for theirs.".”
– Criss Jami
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 Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation
ON AUTONOMOUS STATUS
Basic Education Department, Secondary School Level
Lucena City, Philippines

APA Writing Style

The American Psychological Association writing style establishes standards

of written communication concerning the organization of content, writing style, citing
references, and how to prepare a manuscript for publication in certain disciplines. It
provides comprehensive guidelines for writing academic papers in different disciplines.
Traditionally, this style is frequently used by writers and students in business, nursing,
and social sciences like Psychology, Linguistics, Sociology, Economics, and
Criminology.

APA style provides a structure or format for a publication which simplifies the
work of editors and makes it easier for the readers. The APA Style provides readers
also the with cues they can use to follow the writer’s ideas more efficiently and to
locate information of interest to them as well as not be distracted with unfamiliar
formatting.
Added to this, it establishes the writer’s credibility or ethos in the field by
demonstrating an awareness of your audience and their needs as fellow researchers.
The latest version of the APA Style is the 7th edition which was released in
October 2019.

Documenting or Crediting Sources

According to Ayala (2019), “borrowing information from various sources is not

only an option but a necessity.” When you used a work, an idea, or quoted another
author’s words in your paper, or even received a specific help from someone, you
need to cite and acknowledge them in your works.

There is a need to document sources in order to:

• establish the validity of findings and facts included in the report;
• give proper credit to the creator of the information; and

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 Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation
ON AUTONOMOUS STATUS
Basic Education Department, Secondary School Level
Lucena City, Philippines

• provide the audience with information s/he might need or want about the
subject matter that you have borrowed or obtained from another source
(“Why document sources?”)

Moreover, it is to avoid plagiarism. Merriam-webster online dictionary defines

the term “plagiarize” as stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as your
own.
It is like committing literary theft since you are using other’s works without crediting the
source and present it as if it is a new and original idea derived from an existing
source.

General Format

In writing and formatting your paper, the general APA Guidelines are:
Format Requirement
Paper Size 8.5”x11” or the short bond paper
Margins 1” on all sides
Font Size/ Font Style San Serif fonts:
11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, and 10-point Lucida Sans
Unicode

Serif fonts:
12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, 10-point
Computer Modern
Spacing Double Spacing
Alignment Flush Left
Paragraph Indentions 5 to 7 spaces
Page Header Top of every page;
For student paper, only the page number is included with flush
right alignment

The Basics for In-Text Citations

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 Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation
ON AUTONOMOUS STATUS
Basic Education Department, Secondary School Level
Lucena City, Philippines

Basically, the In-Text Citations use the “Author-date method” or the author’s last
name and the year of publication. When the citation is information prominent, the
author’s name and year is within the parentheses, and if author prominent, the
author’s name is outside the parentheses while the year is within the parentheses.

e.g. information prominent: The findings in a recent study (Zulueta, 2018) was…
author prominent: Zulueta (2018) has found…

Note:
The abbreviation “e.g.” stands for exempli gratia which means “for example” while
“i.e.” stands for id est which means “in other words.

Table 2.
In-Text Citation Format and Examples

Citation for… Format/Example

An idea, a summary, or a
paraphrase from another last name of author, year of publication: (Zulueta, 2018)
work
Direct quotation from One page: (Villafuerte, 2012, p.4);
another work Multiple pages: (Villafuerte, 2012, pp. 4-5)
According to Monton (2017), “direct quote from author” (p.
234). Monton (2017) stated that “direct quote from author”
Short quotations (p.234). Likewise, it was suggested that “direct quote from
author” (Monton, 2017, p. 234).

Zulueta (2020) discussed that:

Use block quotes for long quotations. Use a paragraph
indention of ½” as a cue that you are citing the author’s
Long quotations (more words. There is no need to use quotation marks. Still
than 40 words) use a double spacing and do not add a line before and
after the quotation. The page number within the
parenthesis is placed after the punctuation of the quote.
(p.22)
Instead of pages, you may use other identifying elements
Quotations from sources
like chapter number, a section number; paragraph (para. 1)
without pages
or (paras. 2-3); or table number (Table 5).

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 Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation
ON AUTONOMOUS STATUS
Basic Education Department, Secondary School Level
Lucena City, Philippines

According to Alvarez and Seño (2012) …

A work from two authors
….as the result of the study (Alvarez & Seño, 2012).
A Work by Three or More Beniegas et al., (2018) reported…
Authors (Beniegas et al., 2018).
Sources: Park, Kim, Byun, and Oh (2019);
Multiple Works with Park, Kim, Do, Oh, Byun, and Zhang (2016)
similar group of authors Citation: Park, Kim, Oh, et al., (2019);
Park, Kim, Byun, et al., (2016)
Use the title of the books or report: (Basic Accounting, 2009)
Unknown Author Use the title of articles, chapters or web pages: (“About
APA”, 2019)
First citation: American Psychological Association (2019)
Subsequent citations: (APA, 2019)
Organization as an
Author First Citation: (Government Association of Certified Public
Accountants [GACPA], 2019)
Subsequent Citations: (GACPA, 2019)
Two or More Works in the Arrange alphabetically and separate it by semi-colon:
Same Parentheses (Ladesma, 2000; Panopio, 2015)
Authors with the Same Include the first initials of the author with the last name and
Last Name year:
(A. Ladesma, 2000; D. Ladesma, 1999)
Two or More Works by Use lower case letters with the years:
the Same Author in the …study (De la Cruz, 2001a).;
Same Year De la Cruz, (2001b) presented….
Personal Communication include the initial and last name of the communicator and the
(interviews, e-mails, date of the communication
letters, or conversations) (M. Villafuerte, personal communication, March 15, 2020).
Citing Indirect Sources Monton argued that … (as cited in Rejano, 2012, p. 89)
(Monton, 2014, as cited in Rejano, 2012, p.89)
Unknown Author and Use the title in the signal phrase or the first word or two
Unknown Date words of the title in the parenthesis and use the abbreviation
“n.d.”: (“Literature and Arts,” n.d.)
Adapted from https://owl.purdue.edu/

One of the changes in-text citation from the 6th edition to the 7th edition is that all
sources with three authors or more will be attributed using the name of the first author

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 Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation
ON AUTONOMOUS STATUS
Basic Education Department, Secondary School Level
Lucena City, Philippines

followed by “et al.” except for those papers that have the same name for the first listed
authors. If this will be the case, you have to list ay many names of the authors as
needed that will differentiate the papers, then use et al afterwards.

Online Resources:

You may visit the following websites for additional information on In-Text
Citations; the APA sixth edition style is also available here:
• Purdue Online Writing Lab at
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_style_introd
uction.html
• CSUDH University Library at https://libguides.csudh.edu/citation/apa-7
• American Psychological Association at https://apastyle.apa.org/

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