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CIEC6350: Creativity and Play in Early Childhood: Citing in APA format (7th edition)

A guide to finding and citing articles

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Sample citations

The attached document shows sample citations in APA (7th). The second page shows the layout for a reference list. Please note the spacing.

Before you turn in your paper!

Before you turn in your paper compare the Reference List with the content of the paper.

  • Make sure that ALL the items in the Reference list are cited in the paper, and
  • ALL the items cited in the paper are in the Reference list.

All citations in the text and the Reference list should match.

General format for APA citations

Author's name: Last name, first initial, e.g. Banks, J. A.

Date of publication: Usually just the year in parentheses, followed by a period, e.g. (2008). When including additional information for newspapers, etc., start with the year, e.g. (2009, July 16). If no date is available, use (n.d.).

Title of article: Capitalize first word of title and subtitle. Period at the end, e.g. Conjuring cut scores: How it distorts our picture of student achievement.

Title of book: Italicize and capitalize first word of title and subtitle. Period at the end, e.g. Improving multicultural education: Lessons from the intergroup education movement. 

Journal information: Italicize and capitalize all important words in the title. Italicize volume number. Issue number goes in parentheses (not italicized). Include beginning and ending page numbers of journal article, e.g. Journal of Research in Reading, 31(4), 20-28.

With the exception of web site information or DOI's (Digital Object Identifier) all citations should end with a period.

Double space all citations in Reference list. Do not increase spacing between citations. Indent second line of citation to show separation.

Why and how to cite

A good scholar cites the source of information whenever using another person's ideas, opinion or theory. A good scholar also provides citations for any facts, statistics, graphs, or drawings that are obtained from another source. Quotations of another person's actual spoken or written word, and paraphrases of another person's spoken or written words should also be cited.

For additional information about citing sources and avoiding plagiarism, try any or all of the following:

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