Most APA citations have two parts:
In-text citations should have:
There are two ways to do in-text citations:
Parenthetical citations – all citation information is in parentheses
Ex. Some studies have found that students with disabilities are not always encouraged to go to college (Elmore, Veitch, & Harbor, 2018).
Narrative citations – citation information is split up
Ex. Elmore, Veitch, and Harbor (2018) found that students with disabilities are not always encouraged to go to college.
General rules for in-text citations:
Most things in reference list citations should be lowercase - the exceptions are:
Masta (2018) notes that participants in her study were "most at ease interacting with other Native American students" (p. 29).
Masta, S. (2018). Strategy and resistance: How Native American students engage in accommodation in mainstream schools. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 49(1), 21-35.
Note: The general format for article citations is:
Most of the library databases have citations for the articles they contain. However, they're not perfect. Here are some common errors that pop up:
It's a good idea to be aware of APA citation rules in order to identify and fix those kinds of mistakes. If you need to brush up on your APA knowledge, here are a few good resources:
When putting together a reference list in APA style, the first line should be normal, but all other lines should be indented. This is called a hanging indent. Here's how you can do it.