Citation and Evaluating Resources Guide: APA Citation Guide

APA style developed by the American Psychological Association is used at Southpointe Academy in our Science and Mathematics classes. 

In APA style, you use in-text citations and a References List.

A Reference List provides a detailed record of any sources you directly quoted, referenced, paraphrased or drew inspiration from in your assignment. All works you produce where you use information or ideas from another person's work must include a Reference list including presentations and visual pieces.

Basic Formatting of the References List

• Place the References list at the end of your paper, as the last slide in a presentation, or as a separately submitted document if the inclusion of the References List would disrupt the artistic integrity of the final piece.
• The first line of the citation must be aligned to the left of the document, but second and subsequent lines must be indented. Use the tab feature when typing to properly indent.
• Entries must be arranged in alphabetical order by the first element. This is usually the author's last name, in the case of an article without an author, this would be the title of the article (excluding initial articles such as A, An or The).
• If two authors have the same name, use the first letter of their first name to decide alphabetical order.
• For multiple works by the same author, alphabetize by title.

Below are the most commonly used sources cited in APA format. If you can not find the source style below, come see your Teacher Librarian for help. 

Book With One Author:

Author's Last Name, Author's First Name (Date of Publication). Title of book. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example:

Smith, John (1992). The common house cat. Calgary, AB. Catington Press.

Book With Two Authors:

Sometimes books will have more than one author. When there are two authors, you would list both authors in the order they appear on the book in the following format.

First Author's Last Name, First Author's First Name, and Second Author's First Name Second Author's Last Name (Date of Publication). Title of the Book. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example:

Harrison, Matthew, and Diane Archer (2016). The Secret Life of Sloths. Seattle, WA. Wildlife Publications Inc.

Book With More Than Two Authors:

You may also come across books with three or more authors. In this case, list only the first author as listed on the book followed by the phrase et al. (Latin for "and others") instead of listing the rest of the author's names. (Please note there is always a period after the "al" in et al.)

Example:

Burns, Robert, et al. Bears, Boars and Other Wild Beasts: A Field Guide (2002). Honolulu, HI. Hawaii State University Press.

Citing Electronic Sources (Including Databases):

Because electronic sources vary so greatly and because information often changes on websites, you may not always be able to provide all of the information listed below. When using electronic sources, try to collect as much of the information as possible. If you find most of the information list below is missing from your source, you may need to evaluate whether or not your source is a reliable one. It is strongly suggested you collect this information as you research as the website you are researching from may not be easily available later on.

Basic Citation Format (remember your citation may not include all of this information if you could not find it):

Author Last Name, Initial. (Date of Publication). Title of website. Retrieved from website address

Mulhauser, G. (2009). An introduction to cognitive therapy & cognitive behavioural approaches. Retrieved from http://counsellingresource.com/types /cognitive-therapy/

With the emergence of generative AI platforms like ChatGpt, you may be wondering what the guidelines are for using ChatGpt in your classes. Generally speaking, you should be completing your own work and not relying on AI to complete work for you. In some cases, with teacher permission, you may be allowed to use generative AI programs. When generating work with AI programs, however, you must cite the sections of your work that have been written by the AI program. Failure to do so will result in plagiarism. The resources linked below can help you with citing these sources.