APA Citations

I want to spend a little time “chatting” about APA full bibliographic citations. First, some common mistakes people make:

1. Author’s first names are not included, just first initials.
2. If you can not find an author for your resource, consider the following:
   
1. Really search for the author. On websites the author’s name may be listed on a different page. Take some time and really search.
2. Please realize that government agencies, organizations, and corporations can be authors. Check out: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c09_s2.html#3
3. And if you really can’t find an author, do not start your citation with the date. Check out: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c09_s2.html#4
3. The titles of the works do not have every word capitalized. Basically you should only be capitalizing the first word, proper nouns, and if there is a colon/subtitle, the first word of the subtitle.
4. Titles of major works (books, films, television shows, not episodes, etc.) and periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and journals) are italicized. Specific articles, chapters, television episodes titles are not italicized.
5. Do not include periods at the end of a full bibliographic citation with a URL.
6. If your source is from a website, provide the full URL (website address). If it is from a database, only give the database name. If it is from a very large website with a good search engine, like a newspaper website, provide the general URL. See the detailed examples below.

Tawnee is a college student in New York City. She is taking a biology class that has gotten her to think a lot about sustainability. On December 10, 2006, while sitting at the local coffee shop, she picked up The New York Times and read an article about eco-tourism and being carbon neutral. If she were to write a full bibliographic citation about that article, based on the one she read in the physical newspaper, it would look like:

Higgins, M. (2006, December 10). Carbon neutral: Raising the ante on eco-tourism. The New York Times, section 5, p. 12.

Once Tawnee started the spring semester, she email a couple of her friends about the article. She just gave them the name of the article, the name of the author, and that it was in a December issue of The New York Times.

Sarah, one of Tawnee’s friends looked for it at The New York Times website. Sarah’s full bibliographic citations would look like:

Higgins, M. (2006, December 10). Carbon neutral: Raising the ante on eco-tourism. The New York Times. Retrieved February 13, 2006, from http://www.nytimes.com/

Notice that Tawnee does not have the section and page number; this is because that information is not provided on the website. However, if the section and page number had been provided, she should include it in the citation as well. (See: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c09_s2.html#E).

Teresa, another of Tawnee’s friends, looked in one of her library’s databases for the article. Her citation would look like:

Higgins, M. (2006, December 10). Carbon neutral: Raising the ante on eco-tourism. The New York Times, section 5, p. 12. Retrieved February 13, 2006, from LexisNexis.

Notice, Teresa did include the original print page numbers because that information was included with the electronic copy in LexisNexis. If LexisNexis tracked every individual source in its database with a code, Teresa would have needed to include that code as well (see: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c09_s2.html#20).

Folks, any citation style is complex. Basically, you need to leave yourself enough time to double, and triple check. Always feel free to ask your instructor for help.

PLEASE NOTE...THE CITATIONS ABOVE ARE NOT INDENTED AS THEY SHOULD BE (IT CAN BE VERY DIFFICULT TO DO IN A WEB ENVIRONMENT). IN APA, ALL BUT THE FIRST LINE SHOULD BE INDENTED.