What Is an In-text Citation?

What Is an In-Text Citation?

An in-text citation is a brief description of where the information you are citing in your writing comes from. It directs the reader to more complete documentation on the References page at the end of the paper. In-text citations are placed inside the body of your paper.

When Do I Use an In-Text Citation?

In-text citations are used when you use information (ideas, quotations, statistics, dates, figures, graphs, charts, and images) from other sources in your writing.  Writers most often take information from other sources and either directly quote it, paraphrase it, or summarize it.

APA has specific rules about how to format your in-text citations and follows an author-date system. In-text citations must correspond with the first word(s) of the matching References page citation. Below are general APA guidelines for in-text citations.

• Include Author’s Name
  • The first time you use a source in your paper, include the author’s and their credentials if those credentials help to establish the credibility of the author.
  • This will be done at the beginning of the sentence.
  • After the initial introduction, in-text citations can then be contained in parenthesis at the end of the research.
  • If you have one or two authors, include both of their names.
  • If you have more than two authors, use the first author’s name followed by a comma and et al.
  • If there is no author, use the title of the source, capitalized according to APA rules, in “quotation marks.”
    • Example: According to the article “What Is Wrong with Today’s Schools,” children need teachers who they view as role models (2020).

• Include the Year
  • The year number should be put at the end of the sentence in (parentheses) following the author’s last name.
  • Put the period after the parentheses.
    • Example: One scholar argued that it is impossible to measure social class (Calvert, 1982).
  • If there is no date, include “n.d.” for “no date”
    • Example: According to the article “What Is Wrong with Today’s Schools,” children need teachers who they view as role models (n.d.).

•  Include the Page Number
  • The page number is only required when using a direct quote.
  • It is helpful to include page number information for longer works such as books.
  • Use the paragraph number if the source has no other identifying information
    • Example: Mark Kantrowitz (2021), publisher of a private financial aid help site, published tips in Forbes magazine stating, “To get a better financial aid offer, you need to understand how the system works (para. 3).”

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