Skip to Main Content

APA Style Guide (7th Edition)

Why and When to Cite Sources?

Why should you cite sources?

It's important to cite sources you used in your research and scholarly writing for several reasons:

  • To acknowledge and give credit to the authors of the sources that you used
  • To help readers identify and locate the source you used, providing your reader with more information about your sources
  • To strengthen your work by showing your credibility and by providing outside support to your ideas
  • To avoid plagiarism, keeping you from failing a paper, a course or being sued in the real world

When should you cite sources?

You should cite sources whenever you quote directly, paraphrase, or summarize someone else's work (e.g., ideas, concepts, data, and designs).

See Olds College Policy: D31: Academic Integrity

What is APA citation style?

American Psychological Association (APA) style is a set of guidelines for formatting and citing sources in academic writing. The latest edition of the APA style manual is the 7th edition, which was released in 2019.

APA style uses the author–date citation system, in which a brief in-text citation directs readers to a full reference list entry. There are two parts to referencing in APA style: the in text citations (citations within the body of your paper) and the reference list at the end of your paper.

In-text Citation

An in-text citation is a brief notation next to the text that was rephrased into your own words (summarizing, paraphrasing) OR text that was copied (quoting). The brief notation is in “author-date” style. There are three ways to integrate sources into your paper: summarize, paraphrase or quote.

  • Summarize: Summarizing involves putting the main ideas or findings of the source materials into a brief overview using your own words and expressions.
  • Paraphrase: A paraphrase restates another’s idea (or your own previously published idea) in your own words.
  • Quote: A direct quotation exactly replicates the words from another work or from your own previously published work.

It is best to paraphrase sources rather than directly quoting them because paraphrasing shows your understanding to what the source wrote and allows you to fit material to the context of your paper and writing style.

Click here to learn more about in-text citations

References

Every in-text citation must correspond to an entry in your list of references. A reference list entry generally has four elements: the author, date, title, and source. Each element answers a question:

  • Author: Who is responsible for this work?
  • Date: When was this work published?
  • Title: What is this work called?
  • Source: Where can I retrieve this work?
Click here to learn more about References

Helpful Links and Guides

Citation Generators

If you don't need to cite very many resources, you might want to use one of the following citation generators.
You should always double-check generated citations!

Always double check your references - if you enter information incorrectly, the citation generator will spit it back incorrectly.