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EDUC 4532 Early Childhood Assessment

Methods of naturalistic assessment & research for early childhood education.

Cite It

Give Credit Where It’s Due

It’s essential to credit the sources you use in your research, and that’s why there are standardized style guides for in-text citations and lists of references. In this class, you will format your papers and cite your sources in the style of the American Psychological Association (APA).

See these resources to learn how to use this style.

APA Style

The APA Style, created by the American Psychological Association, is common in the social sciences.

Find the handbook at the library or explore the linked websites to learn how to use this style.

Style Guide

Legal Citations

For legal references such as dockets or court cases, the APA Publication Manual defers to The Bluebook, a standard legal format. See chapter 11 of the Publication Manual for an overview of legal citations.

APA Template

Keep the requirements of APA Style at your fingertips with this complete, ready-made template.

To Use this Document

  1. Download and open the file in Microsoft Word.

  2. Select FileSave AsThis PC.

  3. Select any location to save the file.

  4. In the Save As dialog box, select Word Template (*.dotx) from the Save as type: dropdown menu.

  5. Give the file any name you wish (e.g., “APA Format”) and select Save.

The template will now be available whenever you open Word.

Bibliography Cheat Sheet

This document contains examples of the most common types of bibliographic entries, with explanations.

Example APA Citations

The APA places a heavy emphasis on date of publication.

Date of publication helps distinguish between works, so it is always in the in-text citation and has a prominent place in the bibliographic entry. See the style guide for more specific rules, and see the following example of a cited journal article.

In-Text Citation

Direct Quotation

A direct quotation is text taken directly from a source.

To avoid plagiarism, you must always mark a quotation with quotation marks.

The citation for a direct quote must include:

  • The authors’ names

  • The year of publication

  • The page number or, if the source has no page numbers, the paragraph number or name of the cited section

The citation for a direct quote may be either narrative or parenthetical:

Narrative Citation

In a narrative citation, the body of the text contains information about the source of a quote. In this example, the narrative tells the reader the names of the quote’s authors:

According to Martin and Albers (), the traditional opinion that the cerebellum is exclusively associated with the control of balance, fine motor, and oculomotor coordination has been challenged on various fronts (p. 245).

Place in parentheses any part of the citation not mentioned in the narrative. The year of publication should always be next to the authors’s names, but the page number can go after the quote.

Parenthetical Citation

If the authors’s names or other elements of the citation are not in the narrative, place them in parentheses after the quote:

The traditional opinion that the cerebellum is exclusively associated with the control of balance, fine motor, and oculomotor coordination has been challenged on various fronts (Martin & Albers, , p. 245).

Each of the three essential elements of a citation is present, separated by commas, inside the parentheses.

Note the following:

  • Keep the year of publication near the authors’ names.

  • Always include the page number or other section identifier with a direct quotation. Abbreviate page as p. and pages as pp.

  • Place the final punctuation mark to the right of the parenthetical citation. The parenthetical citation goes outside the quotation mark but inside the period.

Paraphrase
Narrative Citation

According to Martin and Albers (), it is no longer universally believed in the field of neuroscience that the cerebellum’s function is limited to balance and coordination.

Parenthetical Citation

Although it had long been believed that the cerbellum serves no fuction aside from balance and coordination, more recent research has modified that view (Martin & Albers, ).

Note the following:

  • A page number is unnecessary when you paraphrase, though you may still include it if you wish.

  • If you don’t name the authors in the text, place the names in a parenthetical citation.

  • Always place names and publication year next to each other.

  • When you paraphrase, completely reword the thought of the original work to avoid plagiarism.

Block Quotation

According to Martin and Albers () in their overview of the relationship between schizophrenia and the cerebellum,

The same or analogous neuronal substrates may be involved in motor control as well as in cognition and emotion.

In addition to this general objection, the traditional opinion that the cerebellum is exclusively associated with the control of balance, fine motor, and oculomotor coordination has been challenged on various fronts. (p. 245)

Note the following:

  • Place a quotation longer than forty words in a block quotation.

  • Indent the entire block quotation half an inch.

  • If you quote more than one paragraph, indent every paragraph after the first an additional half inch.

  • Do not place quotation marks around a block quotation.

  • Place the parenthetical citation after the final punctuation mark.

Bibliographic Entry

Martin, P., & Albers, M. (). Cerebellum and schizophrenia: A selective review. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 21(2), 241–250. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/21.2.241

Note the following:

  • Date of publication immediately follows the authors’ names.

  • Write article or book titles in sentence case. Write journal titles in title case.

  • Do not place quotation marks around the article title.

  • Italicize the journal title and volume number.

  • If the article is from the open web, include an address unless a DOI is available.

  • Include a DOI, written as a URL, whenever possible.

  • Do not place a final period after a DOI or URL.

Citation Websites

Quick Links

Find Numbers and Identifiers

Legal and Government Publications

Figure 1
Am I Plagiarizing?
Infographic explaining that all information from another source must be cited.

Note. From “Am I Plagiarizing: An Advanced Infographic,” by M. Kirschenbaum, , EasyBib Blog (https://www.easybib.com/guides/am-i-plagiarizing-advanced-infographic). Copyright by EasyBib. Used with permission.