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APA Referencing Guide

This online guide is an abridged version of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2020a) 7th edition manual.

 

When paraphrasing, simply substituting synonyms for some of the words is not enough, you need to demonstrate that you understand what the author is saying. You then must acknowledge the author by including the author’s name and the date of publication. 

 

A visual aid providing an example of a direct quote. It reads: "In conservative heteronormative cultures, it is assumed that gender is unchangeable, binary, and always consistent with anatomical sex... In the reality, however, there is a wide variety of both sex and gender...” (Lumenello, 2019, p. 53).

A visual aid providing an example of a poorly paraphrased sentence. It reads: In conservative heteronormative cultures, gender is assumed to be unchangeable and directly correlating with anatomical sex, however both sex and gender exist in a wide variety (Lumenello, 2019).

A visual aid providing an example of a well paraphrased example. It reads: Contrary to ideologies perpetrated by conservative heteronormativity, sex and gender exist outside of binary constraints. Both feminine and masculine presentation are social constructs that have no real meaning beyond that social rule, and in nature the presentation of female and male sex traits often blurs (Lumenello, 2019).

 

When you have paraphrased an entire paragraph from the same resource (and each piece of information used is taken from that same resource) you are able to reference as per the rules of long paraphrasing. To reference this source effectively, introduce the source as a full narrative in-text citation before making clear links between the authors of that source and any following sentences. It is important to note that it should be obvious that each sentence relates to the single source.

 

A visual aid with an example of long paraphrasing. The text reads: " Long paraphrasing example: Hobbs (2020) outlines that, while a familiar staple in home cooking, mushrooms are also a wealth of nutritional resources. They have a high mineral content and contain a large array of vitamins, such as B12. Additionally, as a strong plant-based source of protein they are a popular alternative to meat, with the benefit of added fibre. Alongside traditional cooking methods, Hobbs points out that mushrooms can be consumed in a variety of ways to facilitate daily dietary needs. Used primarily in traditional Chinese medicine, clinical research has shown that mushrooms offer a number of potential health benefits, from regulating blood sugar to assisting in the prevention of cancer (Hobbs, 2020). "

 

The final sentence of this example is an instance where the context of the sentence does not clearly indicate the same source, so a second citation has been added to allieviate ambiguity.

 


For more information on paraphrasing please see page 5 of the referencing guidelines.

For more information on long paraphrasing please visit the APA style website (APA, 2022h), or please see the recorded webinar from PSI CHI (2022) starting from time stamp 32:48.

 

References

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-a). APA stylehttps://apastyle.apa.org/ 

American Psychological Association. (n.d.-b)Student sample paper with annotations. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/student-annotated.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2020a). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

American Psychological Association. (2020b, October 21). Student paper setup guide. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/student-paper-setup-guide.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2021a, December). Sample Tables. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/sample-tables

American Psychological Association. (2021b, December). Table setup. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/tables-figures/tables

American Psychological Association. (2022a, July). Appropriate level of citation. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/appropriate-citation

American Psychological Association. (2022b, July). Elements of reference list entries. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/elements-list-entry

American Psychological Association. (2022c, July). Font. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/font

American Psychological Association. (2022d, July). Headings. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/headings

American Psychological Association. (2022e, July). Numbers expressed in numerals. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/numbers/numerals

American Psychological Association. (2022f, July). Numbers expressed in words. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/numbers/words

American Psychological Association. (2022g, July). Paragraph alignment and indentation. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/paragraph-format

American Psychological Association. (2022h, July). Paraphrasing. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/paraphrasing

American Psychological Association. (2022i, July). Quotations. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations

American Psychological Association. (2022j, July). Sample papers. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/sample-papers

American Psychological Association. (2022k, July). Use of italics. APA Style.  https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/italics-quotations/italics

American Psychological Association. (2022l, August). Citing multiple works. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/multiple-works

American Psychological Association. (2023, March). About APA stylehttps://apastyle.apa.org/about-apa-style

McAdoo, T. (2023, April 7). How to cite ChatGPT. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt

Microsoft. (n.d.-a). Add a heading. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-a-heading-3eb8b917-56dc-4a17-891a-a026b2c790f2

Microsoft. (n.d.-b). Change marginshttps://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-the-margins-in-your-word-document-c95c1ea1-70b1-4dde-a1da-f5aa2042c829

Microsoft. (n.d.-c). Create a hanging indent. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-hanging-indent-7bdfb86a-c714-41a8-ac7a-3782a91ccad5

Microsoft. (n.d.-d). Double-space the lines in a document. https://bit.ly/3GRcExu

PSI CHI. (2022, April 5). Webinar: So you need to write a literature review/key tasks & how to accomplish them 03/16/2022 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/LWMf-FYOpJ8