A Guide to APA Referencing and Citations
The APA referencing is a type of referencing format which was introduced by the American Psychological Association. Mostly, APA referencing is used when the topic of the academic article falls under the category of psychology or social sciences, but in recent years many Universities have adopted this type of referencing for their papers.
The APA referencing format has been updated for several times and in 2010 its latest editions was published which is known as APA Sixth Edition. Currently is it one of the top most utilized style of referencing and citation .
Let us have a look at all the components and how to give citations in the APA referencing style.
Components of APA referencing Style
In any academic article you are required to cite the works you referenced while doing your research. Most universities even require you to give proper in-text citation and referencing in your paper.
The APA referencing methodology is based around the author of the article and the date it was published. Therefore the in-text citation contains the last name of all the authors followed by the year of publication which are separated by a comma and are enclosed in round brackets.
While citing the works referred to in text, you should maintain a reference list which will make it a lot easier for you to give the detailed reference at the end of your report.
A few points you should keep in mind while making the reference list:
- The “References” should be on a separate page and in the center.
- The references must be in alphabetical order only.
- The list should contain all the references you have used regardless of their nature.
- Only credible sources should be referenced.
- Include the hanging indent in your format.
- Use double spacing
- Each reference must end with a period also known as full stop, but in case of a URL, a period is not required.
How to use Onlineassignmentwriter.com APA referencing generator?
The APA Reference Generator made by Onlineassignmentwriter.com can make this job of citing and referencing a lot easier for you. Our APA referencing tools can generate all the citations and references which you require in your academic dissertation, assignment help or any other piece of document that you may need help with. The best thing about our reference generator is that it is fast and follows all the guidelines set forth by the American Psychological Association, and thus it can save you a lot of time and efforts.
Onlineassignmentwriter.com APA referencing tools is the most easy to use and the most efficient. All you need to do is follow the following steps to get your citations in APA referencing format:
- Step 1: Register and Log on to Onlineassignmentwriter.com
- Step 2: Open the reference generator and select the preferred style of referencing, in this case APA sixth edition. (FYI, there are a lot of options to choose from or according to the style assigned to you such as Harvard style, Chicago style, IEEE, MLA etc.)
- Step 3: Select the source of your reference. Not all sources where created equal, the format the reference is a different for every source, it is very important to identify the type of source you’re dealing with. Either it’s a book, research paper, journal article, YouTube video, website, or newspapers we’ve got it all covered.
- Step 4: Fill in the particulars of the reference like the names of all the authors, year of publication, title, location, page number, URL etc.
- Step 5: After filling all the necessary details correctly, all you have to do now is press the button and get your already made APA reference. You can easily copy this reference and paste it in your document.
How to cite different sources in APA referencing format?
✍ Court Cases
Court cases do not required for you to write the name of the author while giving a reference. To give the reference to a case you need to write the name of the case and the year it of held in court. The following template should be followed for case referencing:
Reference Syntax: Name v. Name, Volume, URL of source(Date)
Citation Syntax: NAME v NAME (Year)
✍ BOOK
The referencing of a book should abide the following format:
Reference Syntax: The referencing of a book should abide the following format:
Citation Syntax: (Author Surname, Year)
✍ Magazine
Referencing a magazine is almost the same as referencing a book, except in case of a magazine it can be accessed online, so you need to mention the URL of the website from you got the information as well.
Reference Syntax: Author Surname, Author First Initial. (Year Published). Title. PublicationTitle, (Issue number), Pages Used. Retrieved from http://Website URL
Citation Syntax: (Author Surname, Year Published)
✍ Website
While referencing the data accessed from a totally online website, in addition to its URL, you need the name of the webpage and the author, title and the date at which it was published.
Reference Syntax: Surname, First Initial. (Date of publication). Title. Source URL
Citation Syntax: (Author Surname, Year Published)
✍ Dissertation
This can be regarded as the most referenced source in academics. While giving reference to a dissertation , thesis or a research paper you will need to following info-
Reference Syntax: Author Surname. Author First Initial. (Year Published). Title (Level). Institution Name.
Citation Syntax: (Author Surname, Year Published)
✍ Government Publication
Reference Syntax: Surname, First Initial. (Year). Title (Pages). City: Publisher
Citation Syntax: (Author Surname, Year Published)
✍ Newspaper
Reference Syntax: Author Surname, Author First Initial. (Year Published). Title. Publication Title, p. Pages Used. Retrieved from http://Website URL
Citation Syntax: (Author Surname, Year Published)
✍ Journal
Reference Syntax: Author Surname, Author First Initial. (Year of publication). Article title. Journal Name, Volume(Issue), pp. Pages.
Citation Syntax: (Author Surname, Year Published)
✍ Patent
Reference Syntax: Surname, First Initial. (Year). Patent number. Source URL
Citation Syntax: (Author Surname, Year Published)
✍ Legislation
Reference Syntax: Title of Legislation, Year (Jurisdiction) (Country)
Citation Syntax: (Title of the legislation, Year published)
✍ Software
Reference Syntax: Surname of owner, First initial. (Year of release). Title[Description]. Place: Publisher
Citation Syntax: (Proprietor Surname, Year Published)
Some APA referencing Examples:
Let us look at some APA referencing examples categorized on the basis of type of source
Case
E.g.: Bing v. Geller, 221 B. Supp. 1043 (F.H. Lim. 1992)
BOOK
E.g.: Tolkien, R. (1980). Race and win. New York, NY: Jake and Boyle.
Magazine
E.g.: Willy, G. (2014). Shall we move for breakdown? Construction Professional, 34-39.
Dissertation
E.g.: Willy, G. (2014). Shall we move for breakdown? Construction Professional, 34-39.
Journal
E.g.: Jack, S.V. (1999). Press report of legal turnover. American Journal of Political Science, 35(3), 563-570.
Website
E.g.: Morgan, F. (2017, July 17). Disadvantages of social media. Facebook RSS. Retrieved from http://socialmediatomorrow.com
Government Publication
E.g.: Department of Justice, ExercisebesidesOccupation. (2015). Normal Repetition (p. 54). Pasadena.
Newpaper
E.g.: Bucket, C. (2019, June 12). Australians invigorated to oldness at family. The Australian FiscalEvaluation, p. 3.
Patent
E.g.: Bevitt, A. J. (2018). Australian Patent No. AU 2018100960.
Legislation
E.g.: Minister for Settlementas wellRimSafety v Tribbiani (2009) 230 CLR 348 (Austl.).
Software
E.g.: Buffay, P. (2005). AmbiguousLocationCreator [Computer software]. California: F & G Press.