Citing Sources

By Brian Sather - Tue, 09/15/2009

For citing and referencing sources or writing a paper, follow a slightly modified version of APA style, which is officially documented in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Deviations from APA format are needed in order to accommodate website format limitations. These changes will include the following:

  • No hanging indent on reference lists.
  • No double spacing.
  • Title pages are not needed.
  • Page numbers and their placing location are irrelevant.
  • No center alignment of text. All headings and titles are aligned on the left.

In general, all other APA guidelines should be followed strictly. Pay attention to detail such as indentations, periods, italics, etc.

When using a source in a paper, use quotes sparingly and rely more on paraphrasing. Use what is most helpful but make sure the authors work is referenced properly. The bulk of the writing should be your original thoughts but supported with a variety of different sources. All direct quotes must be accompanied by a reference and page number (paragraph number for Internet sources). Paraphrased ideas and information from another source should also be accompanied by a reference but no page number is required.

There are many resources online that provide guidelines for APA format. Unfortunately, you should not trust most of them. Here is the order of preference when examining APA resources, listed from most accurate to least:

  1. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition - This is the official book.
  2. apastyle.org - This is an official site of the APA.
  3. Other online resources, like from libraries and writing labs - At the very least, you should at least cross-reference a number of web sources if you are looking up APA style online. If you find something to be the same on several sites, it probably is correct.
  4. Automatic citation generators and bibliography managers - Quite often test fail to get it exactly right. Use them as a starting point, but know your APA so you can check the correctness and manually make corrections.