Educational Administration: In-Text/Parenthetical Citations (7E)

In-text citations, or parenthetical citations, are those that are inside the running text, or narrative of your text, and act as pointers to the more complete reference list at the end of the paper. In-text citations can follow very different rules than citations found in the reference list, so it’s important to place them in separate mental compartments.

The in-text citation needs the author and the year of the document.  The basic template looks like this:

(Author, year)

APA states that direct quotations, those in parentheses, should be rare; APA favors paraphrasing. However, if there is a direct quotation, the in-tet citation will include the page number or page span. You will also include a page number or page span when quoting or paraphrasing a long work, such as a book. The template would look like this:

(Author, year, p. x)

(Author, year, pp. xx-xx)

Notice that the year always follows the author, and the page number(s) is always at the end. Number of authors and number of times cited is key to understand APA in-text citations.

One Author

Research by Garcia (2017) found blah.

Research found blah (Garcia, 2017).

Two Authors 

Garcia and Bartle (2017) found blah.

Research found blah (Garcia & Bartle, 2017).

 

Three or More Authors 

Et al. is an abbreviation of a Latin phrase that means "and others."
It stands in for two or more other names you haven't typed.

Garcia et al. (2017) found blah.

Research found  blah (Garcia et al., 2017).

Garcia et al. (2017) found "blah" (p.25). 

No Author (Not Anonymous, Not Corporate Author) 

Research found blah (“Title of Article in Quotation Marks and Title Case,” 2017)

Research found blah (Title of Book in Italics and Title Case, 2017)

In “Title of Article in Quotation Marks and Title Case” (2017)

In Title of Book in Italics and Title Case (2017) the author states "blah" (p. 45).

Multiple Sources

Several studies (Lowe, 2015; Mancha, 2007; Smith & Jones; 1993) have found blah.

In a multiple sources, in-text citation order the different citations alphabetically as they appear in the reference list, so the reader can find them easily. Each is separated by a semi-colon.

Same Author/Same Year/Different Works

Research found (Garcia, 1981a)

Garcia (1981b) found

In your reference list, these would look like:

 

Garcia, C. (1981a). Article title.   [other article citation information].

Garcia, C. (1981b). Book title.   [other book citation information].

Citing Someone Who is Being Cited by Someone