APA In-text Citations
Direct Quotations
All APA style in-text citations should include the surname(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
When quoting a specific part of the source, you must also provide information about the specific part of the source you are quoting (e.g. page numbers).
APA in-text citations can be in one of two formats:
(1) Parenthetical citations include the required information in parentheses, for example:
(2) Narrative citations incorporate citation information into the text as part of the sentence. For example:
Place long direct quotations (40 words or more) in a left-indented block. Note that no quotation marks are necessary for longer quotations. For example:
Paraphrasing
It is optional to include the page number for paraphrasing (however you may want to do so to help your reader find the original text themselves). For example:
Archival Documents
Use (Author’s last name(s) or Organization and the year the document was written or created. The APA Style website provides more details.
APA Use of "et al."
The Latin phrase "et al." ("and others") is used to avoid lengthy in-text citations.
Below are the rules for using "et al." in APA citations:
| Number of authors | Parenthetical citation | Narrative citation |
|---|---|---|
| One | (Chan, 2018) | Chan (2018) |
| Two | (Yeung & Wong, 2019) | Yeung and Wong (2019) |
| Three or more | (Mendelsohn et al., 2010) | Mendelsohn et al. (2010) |
Note that you should never use "et al." in your list of references.