FORMATTING YOUR PAPER
APA style requires that you use parenthetical citations to acknowledge quotations, paraphrases, summaries, and other
material from a source used in your paper. These correspond to the full bibliographic entries found in a list of references at
the end of your paper. To cite a source in the text of your assignment, indicate in parentheses the last name of the author(s),
or if there is no author, the first few words of the document title
1
, followed by the year of publication, and, if quoting, the
page number(s). The next two paragraphs show some sample in-text citations, followed by the corresponding references.
The APA Manual includes a 10-page sample student paper (2020, pp. 61-67) and provides two sample papers online.
In his classic study, Gardner (2004)
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summarized the scepticism of current researchers and observers about
whether the messages presented in the Fourth Assessment Report were really about the end of the world as we know
it. His conclusion was that “anthropogenic global warming is occurring” (p. 22)
3
and human activities were to blame.
But four renowned researchers (Tannenbaum et al., 2005)
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who re-analysed published data have rejected the
likelihood of human influence on recent climate change and concluded that:
The current climate change is natural. The close of the millennium was marked by a deep suspicion of
the natural world and an increasing reliance upon the pronouncements of soothsayers and visionaries,
who caused hysteria with their doom-laden forecasts of the end of humanity. (p. 184)
5
This has prompted some key influential organisations to hold non-committal positions on this issue. But in a
recent publication Cooper et al. (2009) positively identified the “human fingerprints” associated with climate changes
stating that “temperatures have risen compared to pre-1800 levels, and humans significantly influence the global
temperature” (p. 19). Al Gore echoed this in his presentation at Dalhousie University when he concluded that “we're
in for a planetary emergency unless we change the way we live now” (personal communication, May 3, 2010).
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References
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Cooper, M., Garzon, R., Palumbo, T., Bhatt, D., Alder, H., Calin, G. A., & Croce, C. (2009). Human fingerprints:
A knowledge evolution. Journal of Global Warming, 18(4), 11-35. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0600587103
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Gardner, S. (2004). Anthropogenic global warming: How the world is changing. Morrow.
Tannenbaum, R. V., Leung, K., Sudha, J. R., & White, M. A. (2005). A re-examination of the notion of global
warming. Journal of the Environment, 20,
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168-196.
1
Document titles with no authors are listed using italics for books and “quotation marks” for articles (APA, 2020, pp. 264-265).
2
In-text citations need to be within the sentence (as close to the source material as possible). The author can be separated from the year and page
number; this form is called a narrative citation. (More examples of parenthetical and narrative in-text citations are in this Quick Guide, p. 4.)
3
APA requires the page number(s) for direct quotations; they are optional (but very helpful) for paraphrases or summaries (APA, 2020, pp. 264, 269).
If the document has no page numbers, use paragraph numbers, e.g., (“Timeline,” 2019, para. 2).
4
When a source has three or more authors, use the first author's last name and "et al.", e.g., (Tannenbaum et al., 2005).
5
Place direct quotations of 40 words or more in a free-standing block and omit quotation marks. Position the page number after the period.
6
Personal communications, including interviews, emails, or lectures can be cited but are not included in the list of references.
7
Start the list of references on a new page. This list must be in alphabetical order.
8
Do not change the order of the authors. The first author for this research article is Ramiro Garzon, not Cooper. So the reference is incorrect, as is the
in-text citation; the citation should be Garzon et al., not Cooper et al. (Use the hyperlink to find other inaccuracies.)
9
Not all journals have an issue number; in this case use the volume number only.