AHElect Module 5 Overview: Academic Referencing and Proofreading

I. The APA Citation and Its Rules (based on the APA 7th Edition)
Referencing, also called as crediting or citing sources used, is essential in academic writing because it not only
enables the work to appear scholarly and rich in information, but it also acknowledges the expertise of and the
effort exerted by the authors of the source materials. While there are different styles or formats in doing the said
process, there is one that is commonly used— the American Psychological Association (APA) citation style.
Common rules followed in using the 7th Edition of the APA Style Guide and the different kinds of citations
are found below. They are based on the web-reference provided by The University of Queensland in
Australia.

The APA citation style has the following kinds:

A. In-Text/ Author Named in Text—this kind of citation requires the inclusion of three details written as
part of/ as named in the text or statement: (1) last name of the author; (2) reporting verb or attributive word/s,
i.e., word/s that identify the author or state what he/ she did; and (3) year of publication enclosed in parentheses.
Pattern 1: [AUTHOR’S LAST NAME ONLY] + ([YEAR of PUBLICATION]) + REPORTING VERB

Pattern 2: ATTRIBUTIVE WORDS + [AUTHOR’S LAST NAME] + ([YEAR of PUBLICATION])

Pattern 1 Example: “The Philippines is winning in its fight against COVID-19,” Roque (2020) said.
Essential Citation Details Present in the Pattern 1 Example:
Last Name of Cited Author: Roque
Reporting Verb: said
Year of Publication Enclosed in Parentheses: 2020
Information Gained from the Cited Author: The Philippines is winning in its fight against COVID-
19.

Pattern 2 Example: According to Roque (2020), “the Philippines is winning in its fight against
COVID-19.”
Essential Citation Details Present in the Pattern 1 Example:
Last Name of Cited Author: Roque
Attributive Word/s: According to
Year of Publication Enclosed in Parentheses: 2020
Information Gained from the Cited Author: The Philippines is winning in its fight against COVID-
19.

B. Parenthetical/ Author Not Named in Text— this kind of citation requires the inclusion of only two
details—1) only the last name of the author; and 2) the year when his/ her work was published. ALL of which
have to be written with a comma (,) in between and inside a pair of parentheses because they are NOT made
to appear as part of the text or statement.
Pattern: ([AUTHOR’S LAST NAME] + [COMMA] (,) + [YEAR of PUBLICATION])
Example: “Language is first acquired through listening” (Dela Cruz, 2018).
Essential Citation Details Present in the Above Example:
Last Name of Cited Author: Dela Cruz
Year of Publication: 2018 Punctuation Mark Separating the Cited Author’s Last Name and the
Year of Publication: comma (,)
Location of ALL Citation Details: inside parentheses or outside parentheses
Information Gained from the Cited Author: Language is first acquired through listening.
C. Secondary Citation/ Citation of Secondary Sources—this is usually done when an author’s work is
no longer within the prescribed 10-year limit (e.g., the current year is 2021 but then the source material
which one desires to cite is from 1995). To remedy such a problem, writers resort to what is called secondary
citation wherein the so-called “old” source material is cited with the help of another more recent source
material that was permitted to cite the “old” one.
Pattern: LAST NAME OF THE AUTHOR OF THE OLD WORK + (PUBLICATION DATE OF THE
OLD WORK + [COMMA] (,) + as cited in + [LAST NAME OF THE AUTHOR OF THE RECENT
SOURCE MATERIAL THAT CITES THE OLD ONE] + [COMMA] (,) + [PUBLICATION YEAR OF
THE RECENT SOURCE MATERIAL])
Example: Santos (1995, as cited in Dela Cruz, 2021) thought that pandemics would be impossible to
ever happen in the world again.
Essential Citation Details Present in the Above Example:
Last Name of the Author of the OLD Work: Santos
Publication Year of the OLD Work: 1995
Last Name of the Author of the RECENT Work: Dela Cruz
Publication Year of the RECENT Work: 2021
Location of the Last Name of the Author of the OLD WORK: inside parentheses or outside
parentheses
Location of the Last Name of the Author of the RECENT WORK: inside parentheses or outside
parentheses
Information Gained from the Cited Authors: Pandemics would be impossible to ever happen in the
world again.

D. Bibliographic/ Reference Citation—this kind of citation involves the inclusion of the complete details
about the materials cited using the in-text, parenthetical, and secondary sources formats. This is located at the
end of the written material in the section called “Bibliography” or “References.” There are different patterns
followed in formatting entries in the said section.
General Layout Reminders—the Bibliography or References section follows the reminders below in
completely listing or identifying all source materials:
- Arrangement/ Sequence: alphabetical—the source materials are listed in ascending alphabetical
order (i.e., A to Z) based on the last names of their first authors.
Example: Aquino
Basilio

- Alignment: justified—the source materials are given the justified alignment instead of being
flushed to the left or centered.
Justified Alignment:
Lastimosa, G. (2017). The effect of the communicative approach to the communication skills of
students. The Asia Pacific Education Researcher, 2. Retrieved July 3, 2020, from
http://www.thejeo.com/Archives/Volume7Number2.

- Groupings: based on type—source materials that are of the same type are put together, e.g.,
sources lifted from books are put together; those from websites are put together; etc.

- Indentation Type: hanging—each entry or set of complete details is given the hanging
indentation format wherein the SECOND to the LAST lines are indented while the FIRST/ TOPMOST
ONE IS NOT.
Hanging Indentation:
Lastimosa, G. (2017). The effect of the communicative approach to the communication skills of
students. The Asia Pacific Education Researcher, 2. Retrieved July 3, 2020, from
http://www.thejeo.com/Archives/Volume7Number2.

1. Online/ Printed Journal: This bibliographic citation pattern is used when the source material is
either from the internet or is a printed journal or research paper.
REMINDER IN USING THE PATTERN: Make sure to observe the sequencing of the details to be
placed and the enlarged punctuation marks in bold used in separating them.

Pattern: AUTHOR’S LAST NAME, INITIAL/S. (PUBLICATION YEAR). TITLE. JOURNAL

NAME, VOLUME (ISSUE NUMBER), PAGE/S. Retrieved from + URL or plain DOI address
Example:
Gomez, K. (2010). Reflective teaching. Education Journal, 2(1), 110-125. Retrieved from
http://journal.com

FORMATTING NOTES:
a. When the detail needed is missing from the source material, it is permissible to skip it and continue
on with the other details, e.g., if the issue number is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND in the material,
writing the volume immediately followed by the page/s and the phrase “retrieved from” and the URL
may do.
b. When the date of publication is unclear or not indicated, the initials n and d may be placed instead to
signify “no date,” as in (n.d.).
c. The title of the paper or the material should be written in sentence case, as in ONLY the first letter of
the first word is capitalized while the rest of the others are not EXCEPT when they are proper nouns
or when the word appears after a colon (:).
d. Only the name of the journal and the volume number should be italicized and copied/ capitalized
EXACTLY as it is written in the source material.
e. The Retrieved from + URL pattern segment can be replaced by simply the DOI address IF IT IS
AVAILABLE.
f. NO PERIOD should be placed after the URL or DOI address so as not to prevent the link from
working.

2. Book Section/ Portion with a Separate Author: This bibliographic citation pattern is used when the
source material is a book composed of several sections or chapters that have separate author/s for each
one of them.
REMINDER IN USING THE PATTERN: Make sure to observe the sequencing of the details to be
placed and the enlarged punctuation marks in bold used in separating them.

Pattern: SECTION/ CHAPTER AUTHOR’S LAST NAME, INITIALS. (PUBLICATION YEAR).

TITLE OF SECTION/ CHAPTER. In OVERALL AUTHOR/
EDITOR’S INITIALS. + LAST NAME + (Ed.), TITLE OF THE WHOLE BOOK (PAGE/S).
PUBLISHER.
Example:
Bonifacio, A. (2018). Independence and its components. In J. Rizal (Ed.), Democracy today (pp. 123-
156). Rex.

FORMATTING NOTES:
a. Only the title of the whole book should be italicized.
b. Ed. or Eds. stands for editor or editors.
c. The small letter “p.” is used to indicate the word page and “pp.” for pages.
3. Books with a Single Author: This bibliographic citation pattern is used when the source material is a
book that has only a single author.
REMINDER IN USING THE PATTERN: Make sure to observe the sequencing of the details to be
placed and the enlarged punctuation marks in bold used in separating them.

Pattern: AUTHOR’S LAST NAME, INITIALS. (PUBLICATION YEAR). BOOK TITLE.

PUBLISHING COMPANY.
Example:
Barrot, J. S. (2016). English for academic and professional purposes. C&E Publishing.

FORMATTING NOTES:
a. The phrase “publishing house” or “publishing company” may or may not be included anymore after
the name of the company, e.g., C&E Publishing can be as short as C&E.
b. As long as the reference is a book, its title must be italicized and written in sentence case.
c. If the book has multiple editions, place “(Edition number ed.).” after the book title and before the
publishing company. For example, …English today (2nd ed.). Rex.

4. Books with Two Authors: This bibliographic citation pattern is used when the source material is a
book that has only two authors.
REMINDER IN USING THE PATTERN: Make sure to observe the sequencing of the details to be
placed and the enlarged punctuation marks in bold used in separating them.

Pattern: AUTHOR 1’S LAST NAME, INITIALS. & AUTHOR 2’S LAST NAME, INITIALS.
(PUBLICATION YEAR). BOOK TITLE. PUBLISHING COMPANY.
Example:
Barrot, J. S. & Sipacio, B. (2016). English for academic and professional purposes. C&E Publishing.

FORMATTING NOTES:
a. While the conjunction “and” and the ampersand symbol “&” mean and function in the same way, they
should not be used as substitutes for each other. The word “and” is used only during in-text citations
while “&” is used in the rest of the other kinds of citation, including bibliographic ones.
b. The order of authors is dictated by the reference itself, meaning no reordering must be done even if
the authors in the source are not alphabetically arranged.
5. Books with Twenty-One Authors and Above: This bibliographic citation pattern is used when the
source material is a book that has more than twenty authors.
REMINDER IN USING THE PATTERN: Make sure to observe the sequencing of the details to be
placed and the enlarged punctuation marks in bold used in separating them.

Pattern: FIRST 19 AUTHORS’ LAST NAMES , THEIR INITIALS., ... LAST NAME AND
INITIAL/S OF LAST AUTHOR. (PUBLICATION YEAR). BOOK TITLE. PUBLISHING
COMPANY.

Example:
Harris, K., Johnson, W., Matthews, L., Wilson, K., Lewis, S., Bailey, T., Kelly, M., Norris, O., James,
P., Harrison, I., Grant, Q., Vince, J., Patterson, Y., Carson, H., Allison, T., Lang, R., Roberts, G.,
Gordon, N., Yates, J., . . . Holland, F. (2019). Brisbane city history. University of Queensland.
FORMATTING NOTES:
a. To cite books with only three and above authors, list down authors as they normally should such as
when there are only two of them, but place the ampersand symbol “&” just right before the last name
of the last author. Using the example above: Harris, K.,
Johnson, W., & Matthews, L…
b. The shortened form of the Latin phrase “et alia” which is “et al.” means “and others.” It is now only
used during in-text and parenthetical citations. Using the example above:
Harris et al., (2019) stated…
c. The ellipsis (…) stands for the other authors.

6. Internet Page: This bibliographic citation pattern is used when the source material is an internet page
or article.
REMINDER IN USING THE PATTERN: Make sure to observe the sequencing of the details to be
placed and the enlarged punctuation marks in bold used in separating them.

INITIALS or ORGANIZATION NAME

Pattern: AUTHOR’S LAST NAME, . (PUBLICATION YEAR).
PAGE/ ARTICLE TITLE. Retrieved from + URL Example:

World Health Organization. (2010). Hunger and illiteracy. Retrieved from

http://www.WHO.org

FORMATTING NOTES:
a. The webpage title is italicized.
b. At times, it is essential for the date of retrieval to be included, especially if the page/ article content is
prone to getting changed/ updated. When the case is such, the word
“Retrieved” is followed by the date then succeeded by the word “from” and the URL, as in, based on
the example given, Retrieved July 3, 2020, from www.WHO.org.
c. When both the author’s name and the organization that did the article are not present or nowhere to be
found in the source material, the author part should instead be filled-out with the page title while the
page title part should be filled-out with the first few words of the article, as in, based on the example
given, Hunger and illiteracy. (2010). The world is facing problems. Retrieved from...

7. Same Author in the Same Year with Different Works: This bibliographic citation pattern is
used when an author has multiple books in a single year, and the writer desires to cite them all.
TIP: Simply follow the format for citing books with a single author and add a lower-case letter next to
the publication year, with the letter “a” being given to the first book, letter “b” to the second book, and
so on in the alphabetized listing of the author’s works.

INITIALS
Pattern: AUTHOR’S LAST NAME, . (PUBLICATION YEARa…z). BOOK TITLE.
PUBLISHING COMPANY.
Examples:
Barrot, J. (2010a). Academic writing. C&E.
Barrot, J. (2010b). Campus journalism. C&E.

8. Unpublished Thesis or Dissertation: This bibliographic citation pattern is used when the
source material is a thesis or dissertation that has not been published by any journal yet.
 REMINDER IN USING THE PATTERN: Make sure to observe the sequencing of the details to be
placed and the enlarged punctuation marks in bold used in separating them.

INITIALS
Pattern: AUTHOR’S LAST NAME, . (YEAR WRITTEN). THESIS OR
DISSERTATION TITLE [unpublished bachelor’s/ master’s/ doctoral thesis/ dissertation, SCHOOL
NAME].
Example:
Castro, C. (2018). Readability of textbook reading passages [unpublished master’s thesis, Angeles
University Foundation].

FORMATTING NOTES:
a. Thesis is for bachelor’s and master’s degree papers while dissertation is for doctoral degrees.
b. If the thesis or dissertation was lifted from a website, indicate “Retrieved from + URL” after the
period following the closing bracket, as in, … Angeles University Foundation]. Retrieved from
https://AUF.edu.ph .
E. Shortcut Tips and Tricks—if the rules are too many to memorize or tiresome to write or type, Microsoft
Word can be used to do the trick. Just do the steps that follow:
1. Open Microsoft Word

2. Look for and click the “References” tab, the one right next to the “Layout” tab.
3. Under the “References” tab, look for the options labeled as “Citations & Bibliography.”

4. From the “Citations & Bibliography” options, click the downward arrow in the box right next to the
part that says “Style:”
5. Select APA Sixth or Seventh Edition.
6. Click the option saying “Insert Citation,” then choose Add New Source—this will open a box in need
of filling-out. Once done filling that out, click “OK.” This will result to an in-text citation and the
saving of that bibliographic entry.
7. To make MS Word give the complete listing of bibliographic entries, click the downward arrow next
to “Bibliography” and then choose which heading to use for the bibliography section of the paper—in
here, the common choices are “Bibliography,” “References,” or “Works Cited.”
8. Other internet sites or tools that can be used to do the same are Mendeley, Zotero, BibMe, or EasyBib.

Discussion Activity 1: Selecting Correct APA Citations Based on Given Information

Instructions for students: Take the online quiz by Pennsylvania State University in the USA (link:
https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/apaquickguide/quiz). In there, read and answer only Items 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9
and 10 as they tackle topics covered in this module and require you to select choices that are formatted
correctly based on the APA 7th Edition. After answering them, scroll down the page until you see a blue
arrow button. Clicking that reveals correct answers for your reference. Since this is a practice activity,
NO submission is required via Canvas.

II. Proofreading for Common Grammar Errors in Academic Writing

After ensuring that proper citations are in place in what they write, academic writers must move to checking if
all details written are free from grammar errors. To do so, they must be aware of certain rules pertaining to
common grammar errors committed while engaged in academic writing.
A. Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA)—in writing sentences, there are two important parts that a writer should
be careful in combining to make them agree or match correctly:
(a) the SUBJECT and (b) the VERB
 1. The Subject and Its Forms
- The subjects of sentences are usually NOUNS or PRONOUNS.
- Most PLURAL NOUNS are formed by adding -s to their singular forms:
student → students
book → books

- Some nouns have IRREGULAR FORMS:

man → men
leaf → leaves
child → children

- PRONOUNS USED AS SUBJECTS in sentences VARY IN FORMS, depending on whether

they are SINGULAR OR PLURAL:
I → we
you → you
he, she, it → they

2. Verbs and When to Use them in Combination with Certain Subjects Remember this:
Verbs ending in -s are singular.
General Rule: A plural subject should not be matched with a verb ending in -s (singular verb).
(a) A subject becomes plural only through its spelling or when two of them are combined
together with the use of the coordinating conjunction “and” such as researcher→researchers;
and the researcher→ the researcher AND the respondent. Examples:
The researcher and the respondent agree (not agrees) that the interview will happen the
next day.

The researchers speak (not speaks) to the respondents daily regarding their concerns.

(b) In cases when subjects are connected by conjunctions such as “neither/ nor,”
“either/ or,” or plainly “or,” the verb agrees with the subject nearest to it. Examples:
The researcher or the respondent thinks (not think) that the interview will happen the next
day.

Neither the respondent nor researchers are (not is) are interested to continue the study.

(c) A verb agrees/ matches with the subject, NOT WITH THE COMPLEMENT.
Example:
The answers of the respondent were (not was) categorized.

(d) Prepositional phrases have NO EFFECT on a verb. The subject is still the one that is
followed.
Example:
The respondent, along with the others, is (not are) having a hard time in completing the
questionnaires.

(e) Be especially alert for subject-verb agreement when the sentence has inverted word order
(in other words, the subject noun/ pronoun comes AFTER instead of before the verb).
Examples:
(1) Questions
Do (not does) the student-respondents still want to participate?
Are (not is) the results favorable?
Why do (not does) students feel antagonized when corrected?

(2) Sentence patterns beginning with the word here or there

 There are (not is) people dying from hunger around the world every minute.
Here are (not is) the results of the study.

(3) Rare patterns where the verb precedes/ appears before the subject; writers put their
subjects after their verbs for emphasis.
Behind academic underperformances is (not are) a troubled mind.

Summary and Conclusion

The last step in the academic writing process is ensuring that the paper looks and sounds scholarly. This can be
done by including different kinds of citations both in the text itself and after it under the reference section and
lastly, by proofreading it for possible grammar errors.