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APA Referencing: Introduction

This Guide will help you to correctly reference your assignments using the APA style.

What is Referencing?

Referencing is a formalised method of acknowledging the information sources you have used in your assessments. Each style has its own specific rules and principles. Central Regional TAFE uses the APA referencing style from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

There are two aspects to referencing:

  • the acknowledgement of an author’s work in the body of your text (the in-text reference or citation);
  • the full identification of their work at the end of your document (the reference list). A full reference consists of all the bibliographic components that allow readers to easily identify and retrieve the material you have used.

Source: RMIT University Library, (2021, July 19). What is referencing? [Video]. YouTube.

Download our Guide for Offline Use

Why, When, Where and How?

Referencing is important, because it allows you to use the work of others in your assessments without "stealing" their work.

The benefits of referencing include:

  • enabling the reader to validate the sources or material that you have used.
  • allowing you to demonstrate your wider reading and research.
  • illustrating your points and giving strength to your arguments with the use of credible third-party sources.
  • helping you to avoid accidentally plagiarising the work of others by giving credit to the creators of the material you are using.

You should always reference when you are using the work of others by:

  • Quoting - copying word for word (known as a direct quote)
  • Paraphrasing - using your own words to express the meaning of someone else's thoughts and ideas (known as an indirect quote)
  • Summarising - creating a brief account or overview of the main points of someone else's writing (known as an indirect quote)
  • Copying - using statistics, images, tables etc.

Common knowledge does not need to be referenced e.g. Canberra is the capital city of Australia.

Each time you use information from another source you must include an in-text reference. For more information on in-text references, see the Referencing Basics below.

The purpose of an in-text reference is to direct the reader to the full details of the source in your Reference List.

All information sources (with very few exceptions) that you cite in an assessment must be included in your reference list. For more information on the Reference List, see the Reference List tab above.

Information sources not cited within your assessment are not included in your reference list.

Step 1 - Record: When taking notes and gathering information, write down all the relevant bibliographic details of your information sources, such as author, date of publication, title, publisher, URL, etc.

Step 2 - Create: Insert a brief in-text citation (also known as an in-text reference) at the place within the text of your assignment where this information is used.

Step 3 List: At the end of your assignment, include a reference list containing the full details of all the references cited in your assignment.

 

Click the link below to watch a tutorial on the basics of using APA.

Basic Referencing Rules

These abbreviations are the most commonly used when referencing.

ed.

Book edition e.g., (4th ed.). - place after the title.

eg. Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). 

Ed. OR Eds.

Editor(s) - use when a book has an editor or editors

e.g., Kasdorf, W.E. (Ed.).

et al.

'Et al.’ is an abbreviation of the Latin term et alia, which means “and others”.

Note the full stop after et al. Don’t forget to include it, as this term is an abbreviation.

e.g. (Gradel et al., 2007)

n.d.

No date - when a resource does not have a date of publication, use (n.d.) after the author e.g. Jones, K. (n.d.).

p. or pp.

Page(s) - if one page number is being used, use the abbreviation p. but for multiple pages use pp. as shown here for in-text citations.

e.g. according to Haran (2012, pp. 23-30), (Roitman, 2014, p. 12)

para. OR paras.

Paragraph - for online sources without page numbers, use the paragraph number instead. 

e.g. (Clarke, 2013, para. 2)

No.

Number

Rev. ed.

Revised edition

Vol. or Vols.

Volume(s) - include in reference list if books have volume information (Vol. 19,  pp. 699-740).

Not used for Journal references.

 

Listed below are some of the common format descriptions that are used when creating a reference. These are mostly for audio-visual and online references. Other terms not listed can be used so long as the wording is brief, accurate, and descriptive. They must be presented in square brackets [….] after the title.

[Audio podcast]
[Audiobook]
[Brochure]
[Clip art]
[Computer software]
[Equipment]
[Facebook page]
[Facebook post]
[Film]
[Interview]
[Lecture notes]
[Map]
[Mobile app.]
[Painting]
[Photo]
[Powerpoint slides]
[TV broadcast] or [TV program]
[TV series]
[TV series episode]
[Video]
[Video podcast]

Use in-text references to identify where you are referring to someone else's work.

General Rules

  • Usually consist of the authors surname and year of publication. 
    • If there is no author, use the title (or a short form of the title, if it is lengthy) and the year.
  • In-text references are inserted in the sentence or paragraph where the information is being used.
  • Direct quotes require quotation marks and page or paragraph numbers .
  • If you are summarising or paraphrasing, only author and date are required.
  • For almost every in-text citation that you use, you must include full bibliographic details in your reference list. There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as personal communications.

Multiple Works by the Same Author in the Same Year

  • When an author has published two or more works in the same year, identify them individually using lowercase ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ etc., after the publication date. This enables the entries to be differentiated in the reference list. Letters are assigned according to the alphabetical order of the titles. e.g.
    • (Farrington, 2008a)
    • (Farrington, 2008b) 

Abbreviating Corporate Authors, Organisation Names, Government Departments and Agencies

  • Names can be abbreviated if the abbreviation is commonly used, but must be given in full the first time they are referenced, with the abbreviation in square brackets.
  • In subsequent references, the abbreviation can be used. The abbreviation is not included in the reference list citation. e.g.
    • (World Health Organisation [WHO], 2007) and thereafter,
    • (WHO, 2007)
    • (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2015) and thereafter, 
    • (ABS, 2015)

Quotes are used to add meaning or additional evidence or emphasis to your own writing. 

Page numbers are always required for direct quotes and optional when paraphrasing or summarising.

Short Direct Quotes

  • A 'direct quote' is a word-for-word copy from your source of information.
  • Short quotations are less than 40 words.
  • Contained in “double quotation” marks.
  • Incorporated into the body of your text.
  • Page or paragraph numbers are required (count the paragraphs manually if they are not numbered).
  • When using the author’s name as part of the sentence, the page number goes at the end of the actual quote.
  • If the quote ends the sentence, the full stop is after the parenthesis.
  • If you are adding words, correcting errors, or clarifying ambiguous names, identify this with square brackets [ ].
  • If you are omitting parts of a quote, use an ellipsis (. . .) to indicate that you have removed material. 

Examples

...it should be noted that every child needs continual positive reinforcement to cope with the world. As Smith (2011) points out, "it is no surprise that we are much better at recognising negative signals than positive ones" (p. 36). Therefore, we need to…

…children are very adaptable. However, "it is no surprise that we are much better at recognising negative signals than positive ones" (Smith, 2011, p. 36).

Long Direct Quotes (Block Quotes)

Avoid using long quotations unless they are absolutely necessary.

  • Long direct quotes are more than 40 words.
  • Are displayed in a block format.
  • Quotation marks are not used.
  • Should start on a new line.
  • Indented from the left margin. 
  • Use double spacing.
  • Page or paragraph numbers are required (count the paragraphs manually if they are not numbered).

Example

Governments have occasionally produced reports on:

     The merits of privatization, incorporating 'expert' assessments of

     likely sale and retention values. This is progress, of a kind. It does,

     after all, provide the community with opportunities to scrutinise major

     proposals for asset sales - opportunities long available in the

     private sector. (Walker, 2010, p. 140)

Paraphrasing

To paraphrase means to express the meaning of another author's work or ideas, in your own words.

  • The purpose of paraphrasing is to clarify, in your own words, the meaning of the original communication. 
  • Paraphrasing is also known as an indirect quote.
  • It is still necessary to provide an in-text reference.
  • Page numbers are optional.
  • If your paraphrasing continues into a new paragraph, repeat the in-text citation.

 

Use of Italics

  • Titles of stand-alone works, journals, websites are italicised. e.g.
    • Plumbing and drainage guide
  • Article and chapter titles are not italicised. They are kept as plain text.
  • The volume number for a journal title is in italics.

Use of Capital Letters

  • The first word of the title, the first word of subtitles and any proper nouns have a capital. e.g.
    • Ageing and health: A practical approach to policy planning in Australia
  • The exception is journal titles where the first letter of each title word is capitalised e.g.
    • Australian Journal of Early Childhood
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