Remember, even paraphrasing can be considered plagiarism (even if you cite your source)! You must express all ideas in your OWN words and express your OWN understanding and writing style. A good strategy is to set aside what you are reading, think about it for a few minutes, and then write out the important points in your own words.
Paraphrase or Summary
When you restate an author or authors ideas in your own words, you are paraphrasing their work. You might also summarize an author's findings or a group of authors' findings. When paraphrasing and summarizing others ideas, you must to cite your source within the body of your paper. In APA Style, you are required to include the author and date in your in-text citation. Providing a pape number is encouraged, but not required when paraphrasing.
Examples:
According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.
APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998, p. 199).
Short Quotations
When directly quoting from a source, the words should be reproduced exactly and surrounded by quotation marks. A short quotation is fewer than 40 words and it remains in the main body of the text. When you include a direct quotation in a paper, include the author, date, and page number on which the quotation can be found (or other location information) in the citation. This information can be included in a signal phrase before the quote, or in parenthesis immediately following the quote.
Examples:
According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).
Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what implications does this have for teachers?
She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.
Long Quotations
If a quotation is 40 words or longer, place it in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
Example:
Jones's (1998) study found the following:
Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (p. 199)
Sometimes the author and date of a resource is difficult to determine. This may take some extra critical thinking and investigation to determine the authorship and date of the resource in question. However, sometimes this information is missing. Use the table below to determine in-text citations when crucial information is missing.
|
What information do you have? |
Solution | Position A | Position B |
| I have both author and date | n/a | Author surname(s) | year |
| Author is missing | Substitute the title for the author name | Title of Book or "Title of Article" | year |
| Date is missing | Use "n.d." for "no date" | Author surname(s) | n.d. |
| Author and date are both missing | Combine solutions for author and date being missing | Title of Book or "Title of Article" | n.d. |
Source: Lee, C. (2011, January 27). Writing in-text citations in APA style [Blog post]. Retrieved fromhttp://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/01/writing-in-text-citations-in-apa-style.html