Writing Resources

When citing specific sections of a source, provide the author and date followed by the information on the specific section. ​​​The reference list should include an entry for the entire source. Citing specific sections of a source may be done when paraphrasing or when directly quoting. See Sections 8.13 and 8.23–​8.27 of the APA Manual (7th ed.) for more information. 

The specific section may be a page number, paragraph, chapter, etc. For example:

• ​(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, p. 10)
• (Shimamura, 2017, Chapter 3)
• (Armstrong, 2015, pp. 3–17)
• (Shadid, 2020, paras. 2–3)

An author is unknown when no author is listed. For example, religious works such as the Bible contain unknown authors. Anonymous authors are specifically listed and identified as “anonymous" within the work.

When an author is unknown, use the title of the work as the author in in-text citations.​ Italicize the title if it is italicized in the reference entry. Use quotation marks if it is not italicized in the reference entry. For example:

• ​Book with no author: (Interpersonal Skills, 2019)
• Magazine article with no author: (“Understanding Sensory Memory," 2018)

For anonymous authors, replace the author with “Anonymous" such as: (Anonymous, 2017).​​​​

In works where the source has been translated, reprinted, republished, or reissued, the in-text citation must contain both the original publication date and the publication of the update/adaptation. The years are separated by a slash, with the earliest year first. For example:

• ​Freud (1900/1953)
• (Piaget, 1966/2000)

As a general rule, include the author and year in every occurrence. However, when referencing the same work in a narrative citation within one paragraph, the date may be omitted after the first occurrence. However, if the reference is interrupted by another source or citation, it must be cited again. The source must also be cited again at the start of a new paragraph. For more information, see Section 8.16 of the APA Manual (7th ed.).

Declarative statements occur when you are (1) making statements of fact, (2) drawing on established knowledge (specific theories, modalities, historical knowledge), (3) making an association that has been studied in the literature, and (4) making references to “the literature", “researchers", “studies."  In addition, common ​field-specific content still requires citations​. For instance, you may have worked in a particular field for a long time and some knowledge may seem “general" to you, but it likely still needs to be cited for individuals outside of your field of expertise. However, if the general public is familiar with the concept (even outside the field) citations may not be needed. For example, "Facebook is a social media platform" would not require a citation because this is common knowledge to a large majority of people in different fields.  However, the sentence "Using social media platforms like Facebook increases the likelihood that an individual will experience depression" would require a citation. ​

​Examples

• Studies show that individuals with depression have benefited from vitamin D supplementation (Smith, 2001). 
  • ​​​Rationale: In this case, you may cite one or two specific studies.
• Addressing wealth inequality in the United States has been a difficult task, for which multiple solutions have been proposed from across various disciplines (Jones, 2002). 
  • ​Rationale: In this case, you would likely be citing a source that broadly discusses this topic.
• While Freud (1920) was responsible for opening discussion into an unconscious influence on human behavior, many of his specific ideas have been challenged (Bob, 2020).  
  • Rationale: ​In this case, you may also cite Freud's work that touches on the unconscious, but you would cite a separate source for illustrating the debate on his ideas. This might be a textbook or article that directly challenges Freud's ideas.​
• Recent surveys suggest that up to 1 in 4 people experience some level of seasonal depression each winter (Organization for Seasonal Depression, 2017). 
  • Rationale: In this case we are using an organization, but you may draw from a government site, a research organization, polling organization, non-profit, etc.

Interpretive statements do not need to be cited. They represent how you are connecting the cited literature to your overall discussion. Sometimes, depending on the requirements of the assignment, these may be your own personal thoughts. Other times you may use interpretive statements to convey the connection between a cited source and your point. ​Interpretive statements may also offer critique, perhaps explaining how a cited study cannot be adequately generalized because its sample included only males or mostly white participants. ​These critiques also represent interpretive statements that come from you and do not need to be cited.

​Examples​​ ​

• Studies have repeatedly indicated that client factors account for a large proportion of therapeutic outcomes (Smith, 2016; Todd, 2018). ​This illustrates the continued importance of responsive care that incorporates and acknowledges the individual uniqueness of clients in therapy, rather than relying on a single modality to be utilized broadly. 
  • ​Rationale: We cite the studies that help to bolster our point, then we follow up with a statement that extrapolates on that to tie it into a broader narrative.
• Recent surveys suggest that up to 1 in 4 people experience some level of seasonal depression each winter (Organization for Seasonal Depression, 2017).  Given this high proportion, which may not fully account for severity in areas particularly affected by severe winter weather, seasonal depression represents an important area of focus for intervention.  For instance, a study of residents in Alaska found much higher instances of seasonal depression when compared to a sample in the central United States (Smith, 2013).  
  • ​Rationale: Again, we provide the information, then follow up with how it is important to our discussion.  Further, in this example, we critique the information by including that broad statistics sometimes do not capture the full picture.  The implication being made is that certain areas may be affected more than others due to fluctuations in winter weather. We may follow this sentence with a specific citation that supports this interpretation, thus continuing the dialogue.
• A recent meta-analysis indicated that cognitive behavioral therapy was more effective than alternate therapies to treat symptoms of severe bulimia (Jones, 2017); however, limitations persist in the lack of diversity in study samples, as well as the ethnic demographics of samples, which leaves questions as to the ability to apply these results across populations.
  • ​Rationale: The first portion of this sentence is declarative and, therefore, requires a citation. ​In the second portion of the sentence, however, we provide the reader with our own analysis of the limitations of the study. If the authors identified these limitations, this would need to be cited as well.​​