APA In-text Citations: Non-Standard In-text Citations

 

The most common in-text citation is the name of an author and the date of publication (Baker, 1969). However, while many sources are those that will be considered standard, there are many that we might want to use in our documented work that will require very different citation formats and qualify under the category non-standard.

 

For instance, when you have two authors, the format for an in-text citation changes:

· (Masters & Johnson, 1966).

When you have three to five authors, there is a very different format:

· (Masters, Johnson, Smith, Cole, & Brown, 2008).

With those same three to five authors, after the first listing (above), there is yet another format:

· (Masters et al., 2008).

If there are six or more authors, there is no initial posting, and only the first author and et al. are used:

· (Johnson et al., 1966).

What do you do if your reference does not have an author? The answer is both simple and logical: You use a few key words from the title and maintain traditional punctuation in the words of the title, follow the words by a comma, then add the year:

· (“Dickens’ Jo,” 1948)

Here (above) there is an article that likely begins with “Dickens’ Jo” although there might well be more to the title. Although there is no author listed for the article, it was published in 1948.

What do you do when you run into the rare case in which your source has “Anonymous” listed? Use the word Anonymous as if it were the unknown author’s name both in the parenthetical reference as well as on the reference page itself:

· (Anonymous, 2012)

What might you do if you have two different sources by authors with the same last names?

· (J. Smith, 1622; E. Smith, 2009)

What happens when you make a statement common to multiple sources in the same sentence?

· (Baker, 1969; Reynolds, 1988)

Although not very likely, what if you had an author who published two different items in the same year and you must refer to both?

· Carlos Baker (1969a) wrote that Hemingway adored his father.

Note above that this citation (above) tells us that there are two things on the references page by Carlos Baker, both published in 1969, and here the citation refers to the first of those two; therefore, when the second is used, it would be Baker (1969b).

What if you have a source that is published by an organization or Government agency?

· (National Rifle Association, 2012)

Although it might seem difficult with an organization or Government agency, just use the proper name and year. Further, if you use another reference to the same item, and if that organization or agency has common letters for its abbreviation, you can use those, but only after stating the name in full the first time. However, one thing you have to remember is that when you use the reference more than one time, then the first use would have to be done this way:

· (National Rifle Association [NRA], 2012)

Note (above) that the abbreviation must be in brackets, not parentheses, and when later references appear, they would be posted this way:

· (NRA, 2012)

What can you do if you find something in an Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword and want to include it in your paper?

· (Bloom, 1996)

For all of these (above), all you have to do is list the author and year because on your reference page, part of the reference will be the appropriate word to identify it, such as Preface or Foreward.

What if your topic calls for the use of letters, e-mails, Facebook, an interview or another similar type of personal communication? Personal communications are not listed in the full reference list, so it is imperative that you indicate that the source is some type of personal communication within the in-text citation:

· (C. Baker, personal communication, March 20, 1965)

What—and this happens to everyone who has ever written a documented research essay—if you find something you need to quote by an author but not the author of the book or article in which you find it? This situation is called using an “indirect source.”

· F. Scott Fitzgerald told Hemingway that . . . . (as cited in Baker, 1969, p. 333).

This issue turns out to be easy because all you have to do is name the source you want to quote in the body of your paper and then include where you found the material in the following citation (see above).

Today many if not most of our sources will be electronic sources. As a general rule, try to use citations to electronic sources just as you would those to paper sources, at least as much as is possible. However, if the electronic source gives no author or particular date, you must handle the citation this way: in your written text include the title of the article or webpage. Then include the words of a short title or simply key words from a long title with n.d. (no date) in the parenthetical reference:

· (“Hemingway in Paris,” n.d.)

As you would expect, the complete reference with the details of the source will be listed on the references page.

What should you do when you realize your electronic source has no page numbers?

· (“Global Warming Issues,” 2004, para. 2)

· (Sharapova, 2009, para. 4)

· (Fall of Stalingrad section, para. 7)

Most electronic sources will not have page numbers, and one critical rule for using such sources is never use page numbers with pages you print from an electronic source. As illustrated above and depending on what you have, you are able to use a title, date, and paragraph; an author, date, and paragraph; or the name of a section of the piece, usually by sub-title, with a paragraph.

Check for Understanding (on Non-Standard In-text Citations)

(See Answer Key at bottom of document.)

 

Select the appropriate structure for the parenthetical reference to fit the criterion as described.

 

1. Six authors:

a. (Ochoa, Diaz, Goldwater, Taz, Nguyen, and Ngubo, 2012).

b. (Ochoa et al., 2012).

 

2. An anonymous article:

a. The front porch contained three generals and a colonel that afternoon (Unknown Author, 2010).

b. The front porch contained three generals and a colonel that afternoon (Anonymous, 2010).

 

3. The first instance of a publication by the Internal Revenue Service:

a. 1040 forms may be submitted by e-file or paper (IRS, 2014).

b. 1040 forms may be submitted by e-file or paper (Internal Revenue Service [IRS], 2014).

 

4. Something from a Foreword:

a. After he won the Nobel Prize, everyone knew the name Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (Foreword, 1999).

b. After he won the Nobel Prize, everyone knew the name Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (Rabassa, 1999).

 

5. Something from a personal letter:

a. (O’Connor, personal communication, May 23, 1966).

b. (O’Connor, letter, May 23, 1966).

 

 

Answer Key

 

Diction

 

1. exceed

2. allude

3. illicit

4. morale

5. precede

6. eloquent

 

Non-standard In-text Citations

 

1. b.

2. b.

3. b.

4. b.

5. a.