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Professional Development through Distance Education

  FIRST YEARS > FAQs Library > APA (American Psychological Association) Citations
vertical line divider Attributing authorship is an important (and ethical) component for professional writing. For FIRST YEARS documents, whether written by students or faculty, we use APA Style conventions to document quotations or original data/materials written by others. 
Although FIRST YEARS expects you to document authorship, we do not expect a perfect rendering of the APA stylesheet formats. Substance, demonstrating good thinking, is always what your instructors are looking for. 
The examples below demonstrate APA-documented citations. More examples are available at:  Finally, an excellent tutorial is at: http://refworks.com/tutorial/

Citations within the text body 

Instead of superscripted numbers described in "footnotes" or "endnotes," APA uses inline, or parenthetical,  references containing the author's last name, date published and, if quoted, page number(s).
  • One author: Here is a sentence (Cochenour, 2005) showing an inline citation.
  • Few authors: Tharpe and Haynes (2004) stated ... sentence showing another type of inline citation.
  • Multiple authors, same article/too many to list: Here is a sentence (Kirk et al., 1997) showing an inline citation.
  • Showing a quote: Here is a sentence "containing quoted material" (Kirk et al., 1997, p. 105).
  • Organizational author: Here is a sentence (ASHA, 1991) showing an inline citation.
  • No date: Here is a sentence (ASHA, n.d.) showing an inline citation.
  • Multiple authors, different articles: Here is a sentence (Cochenour, 2005; Kirk et al., 1997; Santos & Reese, 1999; Roush, 2001) showing multiple sources. Note the use of the ampersand/& for multiple authors.
  • Same author with no uniquely distinguishing date
    • Here is a sentence (FIRST YEARS, 2008a) showing an inline citation. 
    • Here is another sentence (FIRST YEARS, 2008b) showing an inline citation, using a different FIRST YEARS resource, which happens to have the same date as above. Notice the use of a and b to distinguish between the two.
  • FIRST YEARS course material in Blackboard: Here is a sentence (FIRST YEARS, 2009a) showing an inline citation.
    • Course learning modules/units in Blackboard are always edited/revised for new course offerings. Therefore, use the current year for citations.
  • Discussion board/forum postings in Blackboard: Here is a sentence (Janelle, 2010) showing an inline citation.
  • Discussion board/forum postings in Blackboard: Classmate-lastname (2007) stated ... showing another type of inline citation.
In the next section, we see how these same inline citations are documented in an ending reference section. The format of the ending references depend on the type of resource - journal, book, forum posting, etc. - from which the cited material is drawn.

Citations within the ending reference section

Full documentation, including page numbers for printed materials, appears in an end reference section. These endnote sections are always alphabetized by author name, whether corporate or individual author, or if the author is not present/known, by title. If there are multiple listings for the same author, these are arranged by date within author name.
  • Journal: Cochenour, L.  (November/December 2005). The FIRST YEARS certificate program: Professional development through distance education. Volta Voices 12(6), 35-37. "volume number(issue number, if present), page numbers"
  • Chapter in a book: Tharpe, A.M. & Haynes, D. (2004). Auditory neuropathy/dys-synchrony: A mountain or a molehill? In R. Seewald and J. Bamford (Eds.),  A Sound Foundation Through Early Amplification, Proceedings of the Third International Pediatric Conference, 271–277. Switzerland: Phonak. 
  • Book: Kirk, K.I., Diefendorf, A.O., Pisoni, D.B., &  Robbins, A.M. (1997). Assessing Speech Perception in Children in Audiological Evaluation and Management and Speech Perception Assessment (pp.101-132). San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.
  • Organizational publication: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1991). Guidelines for the audiologic assessment of children from birth through thirty-six months of age. ASHA 33 (Suppl. 5), 37-43.
  • With editor(s)/chapter in a book: Roush, J. (2001). Screening for hearing loss and otitis media: Basic principles.  In J. Roush (Ed.), Screening for hearing loss and otitis media in children (pp. 18-19). San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.
Material retrieved from the web, including all FIRST YEARS reference documents, include retrieval dates for the URLs as well as publication dates. The retrieval dates can have several formats - e.g. 8/8/09, 8/8/2009, or August 8,2009.
 
Good idea
  1. Use the copy-paste technique to capture the complete URL, to avoid mis-typing the web address.
  2. On Web pages, you may have to scroll down to find a "date last published." For example, FIRST YEARS reference documents always have the last-updated date at the bottom, as shown immediately below.FIRST YEARS reference documents always have the last-update date at the bottom
  • Web retrieval: Santos, R.M. & Reese, D. (1999). Selecting culturally and linguistically appropriate materials: Suggestions for service providers (ERIC Digest/ERIC No. EDO-PS-99-6). University of Illinois: Champaign, IL. Retrieved April 28, 2002, from http://ericeece.org (Note that there are no periods at the end of an electronic citation.)
  • Web retrieval of FIRST YEARS "http://" reference documents. (Note the chronological ordering for "same author" listings and the use of a,b, c ... if the same author in the same year.): 
FIRST YEARS materials posted in Blackboard present some unique challenges. Typically, these include material from forum postings, course announcements, and course units/class notes. For these, you do not copy-paste the URLs.
    • Forum postings: Janelle, C. (2010). "Little girl insights." Retrieved 2/4/2010. Blackboard forum message, posted in FIRST YEARS course: "Literacy Development in Young Children with Hearing Loss."
    • Course announcement: Robertson, L. (2009). "AG Bell Presentation." Retrieved 7/24/09. Blackboard course announcement, posted in FIRST YEARS course: "Literacy Development in Young Children with Hearing Loss."
    • Class notes/units:
      • Notes
        1. Authors for the class notes/units in Blackboard are listed on the Assignments page for that particular unit, as shown.

        2. multiple authors of courses
        3. *The course units are revised/updated each year, thus you should always include the current year's date, in this case 2009.
    • Multiple authors for course units -  FIRST YEARS. (2009a*). Special Topics in Speech and Hearing: A Survey.  "Unit 3. Audiology Interpretation: Hearing Loss." (Authors: Judith Gravel & Anne Marie Tharpe). (course name) (unit name
    • One author for course - FIRST YEARS. (2009b*). Literacy Development in Young Children with Hearing Loss. "Unit 4. Learning to Read: How to 'Normalize' the Process." (Author: Lyn Robertson).
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