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Sociology Subject Guide: APA Citation 6th Ed.

APA Manual

The APA manual is the offical guide of APA citation formatting. You can find the manual at the reference desk and in the reference section of the library's collection.

Sample APA Paper

Click the image for an informative example of a research paper with explanations of APA formatting:
APA 6th Sample Paper

Formatting the References list

Watch the video below for tips on how to format your APA References page (6th ed.)

More Questions? APA Resources

Diana Hacker's APA Style:  The Social Sciences has extensive information on in-text citation and creating a list of references.

The OWL at Purdue:  APA Style  Another source of information about in-text citation and creating a list of references.

BibMe  A guided citation builder -- entering your citation information and BibMe will help you format your citation.

References List

The last page of your essay is called the "References" list. This is where you list the full citation of the sources you used to write your paper.

APA 6th Ed. Reference Same Page


To create the citations for your sources:

1. Identify the type of source you are citing (book, magazine article, website, etc.)
2. Look up the APA format for that source type
3. Follow the format filling in the appropriate information from your source

This page will provide you the citation formats for APA
View this page for information on requirements for how the References page should be organized and formated.

In text citation

In addition to creating the References list, you are also required to include in text citation.

This is a brief citation within your research paper that is placed after information which is quoted or paraphrased from the sources you. In text citation for APA generally requires three pieces of information:

1. Author's last name
2. Year the source was published
3. The page number the information came from


Sample of APA intext citation


The intext citation is often included at the end of a quote or paraphase and is formatted like this: (Author's Last Name, Year, p. #). However, the placement of the intext can change depending on  whether or not you introduce the author in your quote or paraphrasing, but the same information for the citation is still required. See examples below.

Example 1 (paraphrased): Eighty percent of children in the US eat grapes ​(Jenkins, 2011, p. 3).

Example 2 (quoted): Jenkins (2011) states, "In the United States, grapes are consumed by 80% of children" (p. 3).

For more information on APA intext citation, click here.