A Guide on APA Referencing Style

Academic writing is all about providing insightful information. Whatever the subject maybe, if it's a long piece of work such as a thesis, an essay, or any other assignment, you need to do a lot of research on other people's ideas, and if by any chance, you like them, you can use them in your writing. However, it will be then mandatory to give proper credit to the author.

For this purpose, there are a lot of referencing or citation styles that can be used to give credit to authors. Today on this blog, we will learn everything about a particular style known as the APA Referencing Style. So let’s begin with this new style.

What Is APA Referencing Style?

The American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style is a common author-date style. There are two components to APA style referencing:

• In-text referencing: Citations are included in the text
• Referencing List: Citations are included at the end of the bibliography

Apart from specifics like author and date, other information like publication, title, chapter, etc. can be included in APA depending upon the source you are citing.

Insights Into Types of APA Referencing

As discussed earlier, there are two parts to the APA referencing style: in-text citations and referencing list. Now we will analyze both of them thoroughly with APA referencing style examples.

In-text style

APA referencing style mainly revolves around author and date, so the reference in the text mentions the author’s surname and the year of publication given in whole brackets or in half-round brackets.

Referencing an idea

Anxiety and depression have been identified more commonly in children and adolescents with long-term physical conditions (Dantzer, 2003; Pinquart & Shen, 2011).

OR

Dantzer (2003), Pinquart, and Shen (2011) all state that anxiety and depression have been identified as more commonly in children and adolescents with long-term physical conditions.

Referencing a quotation

Example:

Indeed, one researcher commented that “technological innovations have saved or extended the lives of many patients” (Lumby, 2001, p. 44).

Citing a source within a source

Where you source quotes, for example, Unsworth refer to previous work by Halliday on linguistics, the citation might read thus:

(Halliday, as cited in Unsworth, 2004, p. 15)

Referencing List

There are some rules involved in creating a reference list. It should be ordered alphabetically by the author's name and then by the chronological year of publication. Additionally, a formatting guideline is also to be followed to create a perfect APA-style referencing list. It involves:

• Double spacing (within and between references)
• Hanging indent of ½ inch
• Legible font (e.g. Times New Roman 12 or Arial 11)
• Page number in the top-right header

These are some examples of how to cite sources on the reference list by using the APA style.

Book

De Vaus, D. A. (2014).Surveys in social research.Sydney, Australia: Allen &Unwin.

Book chapter

McKenzie, H., Boughton, M., Hayes, L., & Forsyth, S. (2008). Explaining the complexities and value of nursing practice and knowledge. In I. Morley & M. Crouch (Eds.), Knowledge as value: Illumination through critical prisms(pp. 209-224). Amsterdam, Netherlands:Rodopi.

Journal article

Cheung, J. M. Y., Bartlett, D. J., Armour, C. L., Laba, T. L., & Saini, B. (2018). To drug or not to drug: A qualitative study of patients’ decision-making processes for managing insomnia.Behavioral Sleep Medicine,16(1), 1-26. doi:10.1080/15402002.2016.1163702

Webpage with an author

HealthTimes. (2015).The future of aged care nursing in Australia. Retrieved from https://healthtimes.com.au/hub/aged-care/2/news/nc1/the-future-of-aged-care-nursing-in-australia/495/

Webpage with no author

$250m funding boost for a malaria vaccine. (2003). Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2003-09-22/250m-funding-boost-for-malaria-vaccine/1482220

Newspaper article

Fellner, C. (2019, April 7). Time bomb: Two new cases as NSW faces worst measles outbreak in years.The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from https://www.smh.com.au

Government publication

• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018).Physical activity across the life stages. Canberra, Australia: Author.
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018).Physical activity across the life stages. Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/physical-activity/physical-activity-across-the-life-stages/contents/table-of-contents

Company and Industry Reports

Vuong, B. (2018, November).IBISWorld industry report OD5381. Coffee shops in Australia. Retrieved from IBISWorld database.

Reference list vs. Bibliography

A reference list only cites the sources that you have used in your writing. The main purpose of it is to give credit to authors whose ideas or writing you have cited in the writing.

A bibliography is a bit different from a reference list as it includes all the sources that you used during the research and background reading, not just the ones you have used in the writing.

Get a Better Understanding of Referencing! Expert assistance is available

Referencing styles add color to your writing, but they do involve some hard understanding as they have rigid rules attached to them, as you have seen in the case of APA style referencing. Some students may get confused with them, particularly UK students, as professors demand proper citations in essays and assignments.

For this purpose, students can refer to Instant Assignment Help, as they have the best-referencing tool that includes APA referencing. Additionally, they also have essay typer in UK, that provides best in class content to students.

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