CPSS240 DISCUSSION
chaearvieHello Everyone!
I would like to provide you with some basic APA information in order to assist you with your writing.
You will need to use APA for the weekly assignments.
The use of in-text citations and the full source reference at the end complement each other.
Why use in-text citations?
We use brief in-text citations in order to indicate to the reader who said it and when they said.
The year is important because it serves 2 purposes. It provides a context. What was said in 1969 may be different in 2015. The author may also have more than one source. So the year often helps to distinguish between the works by the same author.
We also want to keep the in-text citation very brief. We do not want to disrupt the reading. As such, just the last name and year is usually all that is needed.
We do not use initials.
But providing just the last names and the year, the reader should be able to match the in-text citation to the full source reference at the end. Below are a few variations of the basic format.
Blah blah blah (Schram & Tibbetts, 2014).
"Blah blah blah" (Siegel, 2016, p. #).
According to Schram and Tibbetts (2014), blah blah blah.
Schram and Tibbetts (2014) argued that "blah blah blah" (p. #).
In the above, notice the placement of the commas. Also notice that the year goes with the name.
When quoting, the page or paragraph number is required.
If the author is not known, we use an abbreviated title. The title is abbreviated because we want to keep the citation short. We only need part of the title in order to match it up with the full source reference on a reference page.
Blah blah blah ("Abbreviated title," year).
If the year is not known, we use n.d. for the year.
Blah blah blah (Last name, n.d.).
Full source references:
Schram, P. J. and Tibbetts, S. G. (2014). Introduction to Criminology: Why Do They Do It? Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing.
Siegel, L. J. (2016). Criminology: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies. (12th Ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage
Learning
Remember that our Center for Writing Excellence (CWE) is available to help you with writing style and APA.
Also visit the following web site for help with APA: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
I encourage you to copy and paste my example above and use them when creating your own in-text citations. By learning a few simple rules and understanding "why" everything is the way it is, you should have less problems with APA.