How to cite
APA style
Whenever you write an assignment (homework, research
paper, essay, thesis, etc.), you will always use information
written by somebody else, and not stating whom and where
you retrieved that information from is called
plagiarism
plagiarism
will automatically earn you a 01 and a reporte.
In universities, it may cause the expulsion of
the student from the institution and in many
countries, it is even considered a crime.
APA
American Psychological
Association
Sources must be cited twice (2 times) in your
assignments:
1. In-text: immediately before or after you
introduce a direct quote from another person or even
when you paraphrase them.
(the basic information you need for this is: author + year (+ page))
2. In a reference list ordered alphabetically
at the end of your assignment.
(for this, you need many more things…)
In-text citations
Basic example
It is needless to read too far to find the first hint of romanticism in the ninth
chapter of the novel Frankenstein (1818). The opening sentence reveals a great
exaltation of human passions, as Shelley (1994) says:
Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feelings have
been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of
inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul both of hope
and fear. (p. 111).
This way, Mary Shelley weighs the emotions of the narrator: Viktor expresses
feelings like calmness, hope, solitude and fear, thus giving relevance to his
passions. Solitude, for example, manifests itself when the narrator says: “I
shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me;
solitude was my only consolation —deep, dark, deathlike solitude” (Idem, p. 112).
Reference list
Basic example
N/A. (2014). Aung San Suu Kyi – Biographical. Retrieved from http://
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html.
Bolívar, A. (2007). Análisis del discurso ¿por qué y para qué? Caracas: CEC, S.A.
Fogarty, P. (2008, August 6th). Was Burma’s 1988 uprising worth fighting for?
Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7543347.stm
Martin, J. R. y Rose, D. (2007). Working with discourse: meaning beyond the
clause. New York: Continuum.
So… what type of format do you need?
In-text
Reference list
format format
I extracted my citation from…
a book a webpage
a film a video
Your citation is…
40 words
39 words
or more or less
In-text citations
39 words or less
These should be:
(a) included in the paragraph
(b) between quotation marks: “…”
(c) followed or preceded by the author’s last name, publication year and,
whenever possible, the page number between parenthesis.
• With these few lines, any reader could positively intuit the storyline of
Pride and Prejudice: “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man
in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen, 1998, p. 3).
• In the first lines of the novel Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1998) stresses
how “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession
of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (p. 3).
In-text citations
These should be: 40 words or more
(a) separated from the paragraph
(b) without quotation marks: “…”
(c) used with wider margins, font size 10, and spacing of 1.0
(d) followed or preceded by the author’s last name, publication year and,
whenever possible, the page number between parenthesis.
• Through the continuous use of anaphoras, Dickens (1995) contrasts
the numerous opposing forces of his novel the Tale of Two Cities. The author
begins by “articulating”:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of
wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was
the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. (p. 4).
Reference list
books
Author’s last name, first letter of author’s first name. (publication year).
Book title. City: Editorial.
• Finney, J. (1970). Time and again. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Todorov, T. (1996). Los géneros del discurso. Caracas: Monte Ávila
Latinoamericana.
Reference list
webpages
Author’s last name, first letter of author’s first name. (Year of the publication,
month day). Article title. Retrieved from http://www.anywebpage.com
• Moye, D. (2017, April 6). Hero Squirrel Attempts To Eat Taco Nearly The Size
Of Its Whole Body. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/
taco-squirrel
Without an author
• GNB reprimió protesta en Bello Monte con bombas lacrimógenas. (2017,
April 6). Retrieved from http://www.elnacional.com/gnb-reprimio-protesta
Reference list
films
Producer’s last name, First letter of producer’s first name. (Producer),
& Director’s last name, First letter of director’s first name. (Director).
(Publication date). Film title. [type of file]. Country of origin: Studio or
distributor.
• Levinson, M. and others (Producers), Ross, M. (Director). (2016).
Captain Fantastic. [motion picture]. United States: Bleecker Street.
• Chinn, S. (Producer) & Marsh, J. (Director). (2008). Man on Wire.
[documentary]. United Kingdom: Icon Productions.
Reference list
videos
Producer’s last name, First letter of producer’s first name. (Producer),
& Director’s last name, First letter of director’s first name. (Director).
(Publication date). Video title. [video file]. Retrieved from: http://
youtubelinkhere.com
• Jenkins, N., & Sweeney, N. (Producers and directors). (2016,
November 14). Kant & Categorical Imperatives: Crash Course
Philosophy #35 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://
www.youtube.com/watch-Kant-categorical-imperatives
Final thoughts
• If you want to cut out a part of a quote, you must insert “(…)” and
then continue with the quote.
• If the source’s author is unnamed, reference them as “n/a”,
meaning no author.
• In-text citations: if you are citing the same author and work for
the second time in a row, you should instead reference them with:
“Idem”, if it is the same work, author and page number.
“Ibidem” + page number, if it is the same work and
author but a different page number.
