APA Citations

Parts of the Essay or Paper

Title Page
Abstract (ask your teacher if this will be required)
Essay or Research Paper
References
Appendix (ask your teacher if this will be required)
Title Page
The title page is usually centered and written in the same font as
the rest of the paper.
You can bold the title, but do not underline, or make the font
larger.
Information needed includes:
Title of the Paper (try to make it interesting – it’s your teacher’s first
impression of your work) (required)
Your name and student number (required)
Your school (required)
Your teacher’s name (Teacher may require)
Name of the course and course number (Teacher may require)
Due date (Teacher may require)
Word Count (of the essay only. Do not include the title page, the
abstract, the references, or the appendixes)
Abstract
An abstract is a brief description of what the reader will find in
the paper. This should include (very briefly) the purpose of the
paper and the major findings of the research.
The abstract should be no longer than two paragraphs
The title for this page is “Abstract” centered at the top of the
page. This word should not be bolded, underlined, or made
bigger. It should also not appear in quote marks – I used them
here only to indicate that it was the word to use.
Ask your teacher if an abstract is required. Generally, it is only
required on longer essays (around ten pages or more)
Headers and Page Numbers
TEvery page (even the title page) needs to be numbered.
he number appears in the top right corner of the header.
The header on the title page will be left justified, and will use the following
format:
Running head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER 1
On each page after, you will only use the title of your paper and the page
number.
TITLE OF YOUR PAPER 2
Note that the title is in all caps
The Essay or Report
At the top of the first page, place the title of the paper (even
though it is in your header – more about that in a minute)
Right after the title is your introduction. You do not need to write
the word “Introduction”.
The body of your paper may or may not include headings. If you
choose to use headings, use them like chapter headings in a book.
They need a short title and are generally bolded.
The paper is double spaced, font size 12, standard margins, Times
New Roman, Helvitica, Cambria, or other standard font.
In-Text Citation
You MUST indicate in the body of your essay or report, where you
got your information.
Things that need to be cited include:
Quotes
Statistics or specific facts
Paraphrasing someone’s idea or writing
Images
In-Text Citation
You need to include the author (or authors’) name(s), the year of
publication and the page number you found the information on (if
applicable).
If there is no year, use “n.d.”
Examples:
(Schwartz, 2012, p. 27)
(Smith and Wessen, n.d.)
 In-Text Citation
Usually, the citation is placed at the end of the sentence, before the
period.
Example: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has brought about at least
six major changes in Canada (Schwartz, 2012, p. 3).
The citation is placed at the end of the quote, paraphrase, statistic, fact,
or image, UNLESS you use the author’s name in the sentence, then just
follow the name with the date and place the page number at the end of the
sentence.
Example: According to Daniel Schwartz (2012), the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms has brought about at least six major changes in Canada (p. 3).
References
Elements of an APA reference
Author’s name
Date of publication
Title of the article, page, or paper
Name of the website, journal, or magazine
Date you retrieved the information
URL
Author’s Name
An author must always be named. If there is no name attached to
the paper anywhere (even look in the address line of the URL), then
you will use the name of the sponsoring organization.
If you use the name of an organization, enter the whole name of
the organization in the “Last Name” box of Citation Machine.
For APA style, you would put the author’s last name, a comma, and
the author’s initial (or simply the full name of the sponsoring
organization).
Date of Publication
This can be a little tricky to find, but the American Psychological
Association (APA) have said that for a website, the publication date
of the site, or the date given for the last update are acceptable.
You may need to go into the “about” or “home” sections of the site
to find this date.
ONLY if you have looked EVERYWHERE on the site for a date, and
are unsuccessful, can you replace the date with “n.d.”.
Title of the Page
This is easy enough; it is often the title of your topic.
The title is usually found just above the article itself.
Think of it as the headline.
Name of the Website
This one can sometimes be super easy (like if it’s a National
Geographic article), but sometimes it’s tricky.
Try looking at the URL or go to the “about” or “home” sections.
If you still cannot find which organization has published this article,
you probably shouldn’t be using it.
How does the reference look?
Author’s last name, Initial. (Date of publication). Title of the page.
Name of the website. Retrieved month, day, year from
http://urladdress.
Formatting rules for the Reference Page
The title (“References”) should be centered, 12 font, and can be
bold, but not underlined
All references must be formatted with hanging indent
All references must be alphabetical by the author’s last name
Only reference sources you actually use – not everything you look
at
Sources
Blogs, generally speaking, are not considered to be valid academic
sources of information.
Look carefully at your source URL. If the name of the site seems
“off”, don’t use it (e.g. learnanewthing.com, or badass.com).
Check very carefully for dates. “Last updated” and “Copyright”
dates are accepted if there is no actual date of publication.
Sources
If the author only gives their first name or a screen name, don’t use
the source. If they are not willing to stand behind their words, you
cannot be willing to use them in your work.
The author might be the organization itself. In that case, when
using citation machine, put the entire name of the organization into
the box for the author’s last name.
NEVER use Wikipedia as a source of information – you will be
laughed at.
How to Make Citations for the Reference
Page
Seriously, just use Citation Machine. It has been approved by the
division and it makes your job so much easier. Just fill in the
information it asks for and it makes the citation for you. You just
have to copy it and paste it onto your reference page.
You are still responsible for checking the citation before you put it
into your references page.
Even if you got a book, article, research paper, etc. online, enter the
information as if it were a print copy, but include the URL.
http://www.citationmachine.net/
Practice Time
Take the time right now to practice making citations using different
types of internet sources.
Magazine article: http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/why-the-
war-of-1812-memorial-doesnt-belong-on-parliament-hill/
Magazine article, no author given:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-
disasters/tsunamis/
Did you do it right?
Geddes, J. (2014, July 23). Why the War of 1812 monument doesn't
belong on Parliament Hill. Retrieved October 12, 2017, from
http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/why-the-war-of-1812-
memorial-doesnt-belong-on-parliament-hill/
National Geographic. (2017, March 30). Tsunamis. Retrieved October
12, 2017, from
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-
disasters/tsunamis/
How do I make a hanging indent?
In your Word document, find the section at the top called
“Paragraph”
Click the arrow in the lower right corner
How do I make a hanging indent?
When you see the drop-down
box, look for “Special” and select
“Hanging”.
What does the Reference page look like?
The Reference page is the last page
of the essay or report.
It ALWAYS has its own page!!!
All the citations are placed in
alphabetical order based on the first
word of the citation (which must be
the author’s name).
All citations are formatted with
hanging indent
Need more information
OWL Purdue has a fantastic web site that shows you all the
information
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Son of Citation Machine can help you format your citation
http://www.citationmachine.net/
Word had “APA Style Report (6th Edition) as a template option.