AUSB Writing Center (Last updated 5/26/2020)

As the 7th edition APA manual explains, “the works you cite provide key background

information, support or dispute your thesis, or offer critical definitions and data” (p. 253).

What to Cite (APA, 2020, p. 253)

• Direct quotations (include page number)

• Paraphrases (optional to include page number)

directly quoting” (p. 269).

• For writing in psychology, students should use direct quotations only sparingly and

instead mainly synthesize and paraphrase.

• When citing a paraphrase, you may include a page number, when it would help

interested readers locate the relevant passage within a long or complex work. E.g.:

an insecure attachment to her mother; the therapist focused on increasing the

mother’s empathy for her child (pp. 152–153).

• Use this sparingly: Whenever possible, try to access the original source yourself.

Citing a Long Paraphrase (APA, 2020, p. 270)

If a long paraphrase continues for several sentences, cite the source on first mention. It is not

necessary to repeat the citation as long as the context of the writing makes it clear that the

same work continues to be paraphrased.

• Velez et al. (2018) found that for women of color, sexism and racism in the workplace

were associated with poor work and mental health outcomes, including job-related

burnout, turnover intentions, and psychological distress. However, self-esteem, person–

AUSB Writing Center (Last updated 5/26/2020)

Repeated Citations Necessary to Clarify Sources (APA, 2020, p. 271)

Here the authors have provided citations to representative sources for each new idea in the

text. It is necessary to repeat citations here because different combinations of works support

different ideas.

Common knowledge (here, the idea that working with children can be both rewarding

and challenging) does not require a citation.

• Play therapy has been shown to have great benefits for children with autism (Bromfield,

1989; Josefi & Ryan, 2004). Working with young children can be rewarding but can also

Repeated Narrative Citations with the year omitted (APA, 2020, p. 265)

The year can be omitted from a citation only when multiple narrative citations to a work appear

within a single paragraph. (The year is always included in parenthetical citations.)

• Koehler (2016) experimentally examined how journalistic coverage influences public

perception of the level of agreement among experts. Koehler provided participants with

quotations from real reviews for movies that critics either loved or loathed. He found

that participants better appreciated the level of expert consensus for highly rated

movies when only positive reviews were provided rather than when both positive and

Try to avoid quoting material that contains citations to other works if possible. Paraphrase

instead, or quote shorter phrases that leave out the part with the citation. Or if necessary:

• When quoting material that contains embedded in-text citations, include the in-text

citations that are inside the quote, but do not include those sources in the References.

• If citations appear at the end of material you want to quote, it is common practice to

end the quotation before the citations and to cite only the work you read.

Remember: You don’t have to choose between quoting and paraphrasing

You can use a combination in one sentence. You can directly quote several short phrases (that

are each, e.g., only 3 or 4 words long) and paraphrase around those.