Montgomery College Libraries, Nursing Academic Tutorial

In-text citations allow readers to know what sources you used in writing your report. They also link each source to a full citation on your reference list. APA follows the author-date-page method of citation. This means the author's last name and year of publication from which the quotation is taken must appear in parentheses at the end of the sentence which contains the information from a source. The author's name may appear either in the phrase itself or in the parenthetical citation. The date always appears after the author's name either in parenthesis within the phrase or in the parenthetical citation. The in-text citations work the same way for any source whether it is a book, periodical, or electronic source. The exception is a personal interview you conduct yourself. The interview should not be included in the list of references. Instead, use an in-text parenthetical citation as shown here:

Example of personal interview:

At least one member of the research team has expressed reservations about the design (K. Smith, interview, July 1, 2004).

Examples of paraphrasing and direct quotations:

Chomsky (2003) believes that our economic system is controlled by certain groups (p. 5). Paraphrase

One characterization of our economic system is "our economic

system is rigged" (Chomsky, 2003, p. 5). Direct quotation

Note that the period ending the sentence is placed after the parenthetical citation. The sentence is not over until the citation is given! Note, too, that there is a space between the end quotation mark and the beginning of the parenthetical citation.