In-Text Citation Guide What are in-text citations. An in-text citation is a citation within your writing to show where you found your information, facts, quotes, and research. For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: Field, 2005, p. For sources such as websites and e-books that have no page numbers, use a paragraph number instead, for example: Fields, 2015, para. In-text citations follow any sentence in your writing that contains a direct quote, or paraphrased or summarized information from an outside source. Each in-text citation in your writing must also have a corresponding entry in your References list. There are two exceptions to this rule: personal communications, like interviews, emails, or classroom discussion posts, and classic religious texts, like the Bible or the Koran. These types of sources should be cited by in-text citations only. While apa style page numbers online sources may include numbers beside the paragraphs, others may not, and you might have to count them yourself. For online sources: Sometimes the quote you want to use is quoted by someone else in another source, like your textbook. You can still use that quote inside the textbook — this is called citing from a secondary source. In this case, the secondary source is your textbook and its author; the primary source is the quote and its author. For instance, you might want to include a quote by Sarah Vowell that is cited in your textbook by Ryan Smith. The primary source author and original date of publication only appears in your writing. However, if in your writing you place this information elsewhere, like in the introductory phrase before the quote, you do not need to repeat it in the citation. Block quotes are the exception, where the parenthetical citation comes after the period at the end of apa style page numbers quote. For a comprehensive overview of crediting sources, consult Chapter 6 of the Publication Manual of the.
