Where Are In-Text Citations Placed in an APA Style Essay?

If you are a college or high school student, you have probably handled several research papers and essays in different courses. Other than answering every question or addressing all criteria on a rubric to score at least proficient or distinguished, what were other key requirements? Did you come across something like “write an APA style essay?”

Usually, professors’ guidelines start or end with instructions for formatting your papers in a specific style. What does this mean? A student must acknowledge authors’ evidence in text citations and properly reference them. Whereas you can format your paper in different styles ranging from Harvard to MLA, this article provides educational information in APA style.

General Guidelines on APA Style in Text Citations

Although your professor might require you to use either APA 6 or 7 in your paper, you must understand these rules as they are applicable in two versions.

  • It must follow the author-date system. If you want to be a pro in APA style in text citations, the first step would be understanding this rule. In particular, a student should use the author’s last name and year of publication when integrating information from sources. Assuming that Rand Stein wrote a 2018 American Journal of Nursing on the implication of bioinformatics in medical diagnostics, its citation would be (Stein, 2018). In-text citations in an APA style essay should have a corresponding reference entry. In such a case, it will be,{ Stein, R. (2018). The implication of bioinformatics in medical diagnosis. American Journal of Nursing}. It is important to note that this reference entry is incomplete as it should include the issue and volume number, page range, and DOI or Ural if it is a digital source.
  • Appropriately follow direct quote and paraphrasing rules. How do you use information from sources in your essays? In text citations for APA style mandate students to follow a certain rule when using direct quotes or paraphrased information. Assuming that you want to lift a sentence from Stein’s 2018 journal stating that “gene sequencing reduces the risk associated with differential diagnosis” on page 87 onto your paper. How will you cite such a piece of information? In this case, a student must identify the author’s last name, publication year, and page number. Considering the example in question, the proper citation would be, “Gene sequencing reduces the risk associated with a differential diagnosis” (Stein, 2018, p. 87). However, if you paraphrase information like this, medical errors related to differential diagnosis will be minimal if the delivery of care incorporates gene sequencing technology (Stein, 2018).

Although you can either rephrase or use direct quotes in text citations in APA style, madeintext.com recommends relying on the latter approach and only using the former on rare occasions. When paraphrasing your work, it is important to ensure that you do not distort the information.

In Text Citations for APA Style Sources Without Authors

What happens if you get an article with the information you seek but lacks an author? Will you abandon it? As long as the article contains credible information, it would be best never to disregard it. Here are the guidelines to help you use a source without the author(s) in your paper:

  • Consider using the corporate name. When doing an assignment in the medical or healthcare field, which websites do you tend to top your search results? Depending on the qualitative or quantitative information you seek, you will access articles for the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Mayo Clinic Health System. In some instances, such sources do not have authors. You can decide to use the organization as an author in APA citation. Assuming you have a 2020 article on the incidence of COVID-19 in the United States from the World Health Organization, who will you acknowledge it in an essay? In this case, an example of APA style in-text citations will be (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020). ,
  • Consider using online citation machines. When it comes to digital sources such as newspapers, you can use various Internet tools to generate reference entries and citations. As long as an article has a link, it is easy to use this approach. However, it becomes challenging for non-print sources such as music recordings and motion pictures for college students. What can you do in such cases? A feasible solution would be choosing an essay writing service such as CustomWritings as your reliable academic partner. What about it? This company prides itself on 18+ years of experience in helping students learn about doing research papers in different formats. If you decide to use professional assistance from this online company, you will understand the key differences between APA 6 and APA 7.

General APA Style Essay Format

This section will focus on APA 6 to understand how to format cover pages, in-text citations, and reference entries.

Running head

Ideally, it is one of the cover page features that has a distinct difference between APA 6 and 7. The maximum number of characters for the running head is 50 (often five words maximum). This feature should be flush left on the cover page with the page number on the right. The word: Running head:” should only appear on the cover page.

Title page

It would be best to consider placing it on the center of the cover page and in the title case. It is important that you should not italicize, underline, or bold it. After the article page, you should enter the author’s name (student’s name) and institutional affiliation in that order. Here is how it should look.

Tile of the Article

Author’s Name

Institutional affiliation

All these pieces of information should be centered on the cover page.

Reference entries

Unless it is the name of the journal or website, you should use the sentence case. Take a look at the following examples:

  • Stein, R. (2018). The implication of bioinformatics in medical diagnosis. American Journal of Nursing.

In this case, the article’s name, {The implication of bioinformatics in medical diagnostic}, is in sentence case and not italicized. However, the name of the journal, the American Journal of Nursing, is in the title case and italicized.

In this case, the article’s name, {Where are in-text citations placed in an APA style essay?} is in sentence case and not italicized. However, the name of the website, Made In Text, is in the title case and italicized.

Generally speaking, these are key starting point guidelines you should consider in your APA format essay. When reading this article, it is important to note that the given examples are hypothetical. However, if you need adequate materials, such as APA style essays, to use as a template for your assignments and homework, it would be best to consider online professional help.