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If you use information from another source, that source must be cited. This includes:
You don't need to cite information that is considered "common knowledge." Common knowledge includes facts that are known by a lot of people and can be found in many sources. For example, you do not need to cite:
What is considered "common knowledge" can change based on a person's culture, academic discipline, or peer group.
To decide whether information is "common knowledge," consider:
When in doubt, cite the source! Citation adds credibility to your writing and highlights the accuracy of your information.
You’ve done your research, collected your arguments, and are ready to start writing your assignment. How do you add this information to your assignment? There are three ways.
You can:
Using the works of others, you can put their main ideas or findings into your own words and expressions. This is a great approach for when you need to synthesize big ideas or multiple points of a broader concept.
You can use this approach to reword a concept or passage from a work into your own words. This approach helps ensure your writing has a proper flow.
You can directly quote an author’s passage by placing it in quotations. You should use this approach when the author has expressed the idea in a way that would lose its impact if you rephrased it. The words in your quotation must directly match the original source.
Any time you use a source—whether you summarize, paraphrase, or use a quotation—the author's ideas must be properly attributed.
There are two ways that in-text citations can fit within your sentence: narrative and parenthetical.
The names of the authors are included in the sentence. The date appears in parentheses immediate after the author names.
The names of the authors are not included in the sentence, but their findings are. Both the author names and the date appear in the parenthesis, separated by a comma.
A parenthetical citation can appear within or at the end of a sentence. When a parenthetical citation is at the end of a sentence, put a period after the closing parentheses.
In certain disciplines it is preferable to use more paraphrases and summaries in your paper than direct quotes. Even if you put information in your own words by summarizing or paraphrasing, however, you must cite the original author and the date of publication. You may also include a page or paragraph number, but it is not required by APA. Please check with your instructor to see if they have a preference.
When you incorporate a direct quotation into a sentence, you must cite the source. Fit quotations within your sentences, enclosed in quotation marks, making sure the sentences are grammatically correct.
If a quotation is 40 words or more, omit quotation marks and use a block format in which the quotation is indented about ½ inch (or 5 spaces) from the left margin. Maintain double-spacing within the block quote, but do not add an extra space before or after. Cite the source in parentheses at the end of the block quote, after the final punctuation mark.
Co-presence does not ensure intimate interaction among all group members. Consider large-scale social gatherings in which hundreds or thousands of people gather in a location to perform a ritual or celebrate an event.
In these instances, participants are able to see the visible manifestation of the group, the physical gathering, yet their ability to make direct, intimate connections with those around them is limited by the sheer magnitude of the assembly. (Purcell, 1997, pp. 111-112)
Tip: See the APA Manual (8.25-8.27) for more information.
If a source doesn't have page numbers, as can be the case with electronic sources, then you cannot include a page number in the parentheses. Instead, you can provide a paragraph number by using the abbreviation “para” and the relevant paragraph number in the parentheses.
If the paragraph number is not visible, you can either count the paragraphs manually from the start, cite the heading or section name, or cite the heading or section name and the paragraph number following it. Always provide as much information as your reader will need to locate the quote.
Tip: See the APA Manual (8.28) for more information.
When you need to leave out part of a quotation to make it fit grammatically or because it contains irrelevant/unnecessary information, insert ellipses.
If you must add or slightly change words within a quotation for reasons of grammar or clarity, indicate the change with square brackets.
Tip: See Changes to Quotations and the APA Manual (8.29-8.31) for more information.
When a work has 2 authors, cite both names every time the reference occurs.
When a work has 3 or more authors, use the surname of the first author followed by et al. every time the reference occurs in the text.
Examples: 1-3 Authors
| Author Type | Parenthetical Citation | Narrative Citation |
| One author | (Ratcliffe, 2020) | Ratcliffe (2020) |
| Two authors | (Phillips & Macnaughton, 2019) | Phillips and Macnaughton (2019) |
| Three or more authors | (Vuori et al., 2018) | Vuori et al. (2018) |
When a work has been created by an organization or a group author, provide the full name of the organization the first time it appears. If the group author has an abbreviation, include the abbreviation in parentheses and use the abbreviation in subsequent citations. Do not abbreviate the group author name in the reference list entry.
Examples: Group Authors
| Author Type | Parenthetical Citation | Narrative Citation |
| Group author with abbreviation: First citation |
(Red Deer Polytechnic [RDP], 2017) | Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP, 2017) |
| Group author with abbreviation: Subsequent citations |
(RDP, 2017) | RDP (2017) |
| Group author without abbreviation | (Harvard University, 2016) | Harvard University (2016) |
Tip: See the APA Manual (8.17-8.21) for more information.
Best practice according to APA is to try and find and read an original source whenever possible. Sometimes, however, an author writes about research that someone else has done and you are unable to track down the original work. In this case, because you did not read the original source, you will include only the source you did consult in your reference list. The words “as cited in” in the parenthetical reference indicate you have not read the original research.
Tip: See the APA Manual (8.6) for more information.
Red Deer Polytechnic recognizes that our campus is situated on Treaty 7 land, the traditional territory of the Blackfoot, Tsuu T’ina and Stoney Nakoda peoples, and that the central Alberta region we serve falls under Treaty 6, traditional Métis, Cree and Saulteaux territory. We honour the First Peoples who have lived here since time immemorial, and we give thanks for the land where RDP sits. This is where we will strive to honour and transform our relationships with one another.