Citing Sources: APA Style

Parenthetical documentation or in-text citations tells the reader where you got any and all information that did not come from inside your own head.  This is more obvious when you are directly quoting from a source, but it is also needed when you have summarized or paraphrased from a source and even if you got an idea from somewhere else. 

In order to avoid plagiarism, it is extremely important that you cite all words and ideas that you got from somewhere else.

Put the information about the source in parentheses in the text of your paper as opposed to a footnote where the source information is at the bottom of the page or an endnote where it goes at the end of your paper.  There are slight differences depending on which style you are using. 
 

• Give the author’s last name and the publication year.
• Only use page numbers for a direct quote.
• Make sure the source information in parentheses matches with your works cited. 
• The punctuation for the sentence goes AFTER the parenthesis.
• If your quote is longer than forty words, set it off in a block text by beginning a new line, indenting one inch, and do not add quotation marks.  At the end of the quote put the period after the last word of the sentence followed by the parentheses.