Webpages are quickly becoming common sources in many academic essays. It is because people begin to puckish scholarly articles online. Basically, the American Psychological Association (APA) style has rules for citing information extracted from electronic sources. Hence, an in-depth discussion concerning the APA format website focuses on the fundamental guidelines for in-text citation and reference list entry formatting.
In-Text Citation
In-text citations for the APA format website adhere to the author-year format. However, page numbers are typically not obtainable from the layout of most webpages for the APA citation. In this case, some websites provide paragraph numbers that may be used as an alternative to page numbers. In turn, people must use the abbreviation “para.” for the APA format website. Basically, the abbreviation is necessary to inform the reader of the number’s meaning. If writers do not have paragraph numbers, they may use headings to organize the in-text citation. On the other hand, authors may use a paragraph number through manual counting within the mentioned section. Unfortunately, the absence of paragraph numbers and headings forces the author to limit the in-text citation to the authors’ surnames and electronic publication or modification date. Hence, formats of in-text citations under various circumstances are:
Examples of APA In-Text Citations
Name, date, and paragraph numbers: (Turner, 2019, para. 2).
Name, date, and headings: (Turner, 2019, “Help me write my essay,” para. 3).
Name: (White, n.d.).
Date: (“APA format website,” 2019).
APA Format Website and References
When people use the reference list entry for the APA format website in an essay, they must follow a well-defined citation structure. Similar to all other entries, the first element in the APA reference page is the authors’ names or the name of an organization. In cases where the author’s information is unavailable, the title of the webpage becomes the first element. The online publication date is the second element, and it is followed by the title of the webpage. If the date of electronic publication or last modification date is not included on the webpage, the abbreviation “n.d.” is used to notify the reader that no date of online publication was identified. The webpage’s title may be accompanied by a description of the source, which is placed in square brackets.
Other Features
A description of the APA format website allows the audience to distinguish the nature of the source, for example, distinguish a blog post from a Facebook status update. Also, people place the retrieval statement at the end of the citation entry. In this case, a retrieval statement consists of the phrase ‘Retrieved from’ and a universal resource locator (URL). Hence, the general format of the APA format reference page and an example of a citation entry are:
General Format:
Authors’ Names or Name of an Organisation. (Date of online publication). Title of the webpage [Page description]. Retrieval statement
Example:
Turner, A. (2019). Essay writing service. Wr1ter. Retrieved from https://wr1ter.com/essay-writing-service
Conclusion on APA Format Website
In conclusion, some unique guidelines govern the APA format website. Basically, in-text citations have a slight variation from the traditional format due to the absence of page numbers. In turn, webpage reference list entries adhere to the basic rules but can easily be recognized by the retrieval statement and descriptive information. Also, people should know the formatting rules when they reference books APA.