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Radiologic Science, research project: Citing your sources - APA

Modality paper and presentation assignment

What is APA style?

What is APA Style?

APA style refers to the rules created by the American Psychological Association for formatting papers, use of language, presentation of data,... as well as for how to do in-text citations and end-of-paper citations (References). APA style is used primarily by authors in social sciences and health sciences, but is used widely in many TCC courses.

See the boxes on this page for details.

Why cite?

Click on the green arrow inside the box to listen to the tutorial, or see the full screen tutorial by clicking the link at the bottom.


Source: "Why you need to cite sources tutorial," Lane Community College, Cooperative Library Instruction Project

What does "citing" mean?

A Quick Look at the Two Parts of a Citation

  1. The brief in-text citation lets your reader know where the information in your paper came from, as you are using it. Usually, this means the author(s) and year.
  2. The full References citation is on a separate References page, letting your reader know, in detail, where to find that source.

Below is an example of how the two citation pieces fit together in APA style:

The In-Text Citation

Gordon and Cui (2015) found compelling evidence suggesting that a person’s career outcomes in adulthood are more of a product of the quality of their childhood relationships with their parent(s), or other adult guardians, rather than the quality of the education they received.
 

References

Gordon, M. S., & Cui, M. (2015). Positive parenting during adolescence and career success in young adulthood. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 762-771. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9887-y

TCC Library handouts for APA 7 style

TCC Library Handouts for APA 7 Style Annotations 

APA online style guides

Useful Online Style Guides

Visit Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) APA Style Guide for a sample paper and instructions for citing individual sources such as newspaper articles, scholarly journals, video and books.

OWL also provides general information about APA style in an APA Style Workshop.


Please use the link below to visit TCC's Citation guide if you are interested in learning more about:

  • How citation is important
  • What, when, where and how to cite
  • Integrating your research into your writing
  • Word tips for creating reference lists 

Using database citation generators - beware of errors

screen shot of the auto-generated citation tool in the EBSCO databases. Annotation points out that the article title is incorrectly formatted (too many words are capitalized), and that you would need to correct the errors before you submit your paper.

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