ENGR 195S - Academic Success in the First Year

Learn about citing sources and paraphrasing in our guide to avoiding plagiarism.

It's important to credit others when you use parts of their work. Complete the giving credit to the ideas of others tutorial to learn when and how to best give credit to the work of others.

Learn how to comply with copyright laws for your assignments, teaching, or research.

Writing in APA style can be tricky, but there are plenty of resources to guide you. Whether you need help with in-text citations, reference lists, or formatting, these links provide clear instructions, examples, and tutorials:

• APA Style (Official Site)
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
• Excelsior Online Writing Lab APA Guide 
• Excelsior OWL APA Activity 
• Scribbr APA Citation Generator – (Use citation generators carefully and double-check their accuracy.)

Tips for Success:

• Start by mastering in-text citations and reference lists.
• Look at sample papers to see APA in action.

What is an In-Text Citation?
In-text citations are short references you include inside your paper whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize someone else’s work. They usually include the author’s last name and the year of publication (and page number if quoting). Their purpose is to give credit immediately and show where your information comes from.

Example:

According to Smith (2020), studying consumer behavior is essential for understanding market trends.

What is a Reference List?
The reference list is a complete list of all sources you cited in your paper, placed at the end of your document. Each entry provides full details—author, year, title, and source—so readers can locate the original work.

Example:

Smith, J. (2020). Understanding consumer behavior. New York, NY: Business Press.