American Psychology Association (APA) provides guidelines to cite sources. Basically, the APA reference citation emphasizes on proper text citations to acknowledge the information quoted from external scholarly sources. Moreover, the APA style requires scholars to include a detailed reference list containing all the cited sources. Hence, the APA reference citation provides appropriate guidelines to cite information from credible sources using author-date or -page format and a reference list with full bibliographic details.
Acknowledging the Information
The APA reference citation requires writers to acknowledge the information obtained from credible sources by using author-date format. For instance, one must provide an appropriate citation at the end of the cited information. Along these lines, one should place the citation within brackets. Besides, it should identify the author and the year of publication. For instance, the APA citation should contain the surname of the author. Along these lines, a comma should separate the surname and the year of publication. For sources authored by companies, people should use the corporate name in the citation. Thus, essential in-text citations must include surname and publication date.
Direct Quotes in the APA Reference Citation
The APA reference citation is based on the use of pagination in-text citations containing direct quotations. For instance, one should place a direct quote within brackets and organize an appropriate in-text citation. Along these lines, the direct in-text citation must appear immediately after the quotation marks. Besides, this type of evidence can appear in the middle of a sentence. For example, people should provide the parenthetical citation after the direct quote and then continue with a sentence. Hence, the parenthetical citation should have the page number. Besides a letter “p.” should precede the exact page containing the quoted information. Thus, the APA reference citation allows a writer to use page numbers when citing direct quotes.
Reference List
The APA reference citation covers the detailed APA reference page with all cited sources. For instance, one must place the heading “References” at the center and at the top of the page on a separate page at the end of a document. Also, the title should be in plural even if the list contains one source. Then, the APA format reference page must have all cited sources arranged in alphabetical or chronological order. In turn, people should arrange the sources in alphabetical order according to the author’s surname and contain full bibliographic details of the sources cited. Along these lines, every entry in the reference list must contain the author’s name, title, and publication date. In this case, writers should provide publication details, volume and issues number, accurate Internet links, and Digital Object Identifiers where applicable. Thus, the reference list must contain detailed bibliographic entries for cited sources.
Conclusion on APA the Reference Citation
In conclusion, the APA reference citation means that one must use in-text citations and a detailed reference list. Basically, the in-text citations must contain the author’s date and pagination. Also, one must provide pagination for direct quotations. In turn, the list of references must appear as the last item in the document. As a rule, the reference list must contain detailed bibliographic information of the cited sources. Hence, the list should appear in alphabetical or chronological order.