1. Using and Crediting Sources in APA
The Walden University
Writing Center Staff
Hello, everyone, and welcome to “Using and Crediting Sources in APA”! My name is Beth Oyler and I’m a tutor at the Writing Center. I usually spend most of my time working with students one-on-one in paper reviews, but I also work on various resources for the website and presenting webinars like this. 1

2. Housekeeping Issues Questions
Recording:
I wanted to start with a few house-keeping issues.
First, note that I’ve muted everyone attending the webinar. Because we have a large number of attendees for this webinar, we’ll keep everyone muted to avoid any background noise. If you do have questions, you can feel free to ask those in the question box, as shown here.
Note that because I’m presenting this webinar alone, I probably won’t be able to answer questions while I’m presenting. I will stick around at the end of the webinar for questions, so you can also hold onto your questions until then if you’d like.
Lastly, I wanted to note that this webinar is being recorded, so if you’d like to access either this recording or the actual PowerPoint slides later or review any of this information, it will be posted in the Writing Center’s archived webinar section.

3. Agenda Why do we use citations? What do we cite? How do we cite?
Quotations
Paraphrasing
How do we cite?
Frequency
Reference list
Tools
In this webinar we’ll be covering a few main things. Our purpose is to help students become more familiar with what APA expects for citations, including why we use citations, what we cite, and how we cite, as well as briefly discussing the reference list that APA asks we include for each paper. I’ll also make sure to go over a few tools you can use to help you with your citations, making sure you are adequately citing your sources throughout your writing.

4. Why We Use Citations Citations:
Give credit to sources you are quoting and paraphrasing
Tell the reader when you are using sources to support your ideas
Direct the reader to the reference list and the full publication information for the source
I first want to discuss why APA expects us to use citations.
Citations in scholarly writing help give credit to sources you are both quoting and paraphrasing. These citations tell the reader that the information or ideas in a sentence were originally from someone else.
Citations also tell the reader when you are using sources. Because scholarly writing is based on research (rather than opinions), if you don’t include citations, the reader will assume you are basing your ideas on your own opinion, rather than the research you’ve collected. So not only do citations help give credit to the source, but they also help you create credibility with the reader.
Lastly, citations direct the reader to the reference list where the full publication information for that source is found. Then, readers can find that source themselves if they’d like.
With these ideas in mind, you can see that citations serve many purposes: they help both you and the reader and thus become pretty important.

5. Why We Use Citations Citing sources is important because it:
Maintains your integrity
Creates credibility
Shows you are engaging in scholarship
Avoids plagiarism
As we have seen, citations become important in helping both you and the reader in your paper. Citations maintain your own integrity, showing that you are giving credit to the sources you are using. They also create your own credibility, showing the reader how you are basing your ideas on research, not your own opinion.
Additionally, because scholarly writing always engages with the research, citations show how you are reading and using scholarship on your topic in your paper. Lastly, citations help avoid plagiarism. Without citations, the reader will assume that the words and ideas you use are your own, when in fact they may be someone else’s.
Using citations, then, ensures that credit is given where it is due and plagiarism is avoided.

6. Why We Use Citations Without citations, the reader:
Won’t know what sources you are using
Will think all of the paper consists of your ideas
Will think that you aren’t basing your ideas on research, but on opinion
Won’t follow how you learned information
To summarize, here are the things that might happen if writers don’t include citations: Your reader
won’t know what sources you are using;
will think all of your paper consists of your own ideas;
will think that you aren’t basing your ideas on research, but on opinion; and
won’t be able to understand or follow how you learned all of this information.
This last bit is a little new, so let me explain in more detail. Consider a paper about differentiation in teaching. If a paper discusses different studies about differentiation, but doesn’t include citations, the reader won’t understand how you got all of this information about differentiation, so the reader might become confused.
Again, you can see how citations become really important for you, in establishing your argument, but also for the reader, in understanding your paper and avoiding confusion.

7. What We Cite Scholars cite:
Quotations: direct wording and phrasing taken from a source you’ve read, word-for-word
Quotation marks: “XXXX”
Paraphrasing: ideas or information from a source that you’ve placed in your own words
Quotations versus paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is always preferred
Quotations should be 10% or less of your paper
Now that we know the logic behind citations and why they are important, let’s discuss what we cite. APA asks us to cite quotations and paraphrasing. Quotations are any direct wording or phrasing that is taken from a source you’ve read, word-for-word. Quotations can be anywhere from one or two words to whole sentences. Quotations are set off from the rest of your paper that is in your own words by quotation marks, which surround quotations.
Paraphrasing is also cited in APA. A paraphrase is considered to be any ideas or information from a source that you’ve placed in your own words. Note that in scholarly writing, paraphrasing is always preferred to quotations. While quotations can be helpful at certain points, paraphrasing helps show the way that you are engaging with your source and using it in your own way.
Quotations, on the other hand, should only be used when wording or phrasing is so good that you couldn’t say it better yourself. Thus, quotations are used sparingly, while most of your sources should be paraphrased. In general, if you’re ever not sure whether to quote or paraphrase a source, then try to paraphrase it first.
[CLICK] The rule of thumb in academic writing is that quotations should make up only 10% or less of your paper.

8. If We Do Not Cite
Not properly citing sources could result in inadvertent plagiarism
Both quotations and paraphrasing
Types of plagiarism:
Copy/paste: copy and pasting sentences and paragraphs directly from a source
Improper paraphrasing: only using synonyms to replace a few key words
Not including citations: not citing sources in each sentence you paraphrase them
We’ve talked about why citations are important. If you forget to cite your sources, though, your paper could contain inadvertent plagiarism. Even if you don’t mean to, unintentional plagiarism can happen. This can occur with both quotations and paraphrasing—leaving out citations for both of these can lead to plagiarism.
Here’s a quick tutorial on some basic types of plagiarism.
The first is copy/paste plagiarism, which is when sentences are copied and pasted directly from a source into a paragraph without quotation marks or citations. This is considered plagiarism because you are using another person’s ideas and phrasing without giving the author credit at all. Instead, the reader will think these are all your own ideas and phrasing.
The second type is improper paraphrasing, where ideas from a source are used and the phrasing isn’t quite the same as the source, but only a few key words are switched out for synonyms. This is still considered plagiarism because the student isn’t taking the information and putting it in their own words, but is just changing a few words.
The last kind of plagiarism is when a student paraphrases a source (placing the author’s ideas in the student’s own words) but not enough citations are included. Even when students cite once or twice in a paragraph they have paraphrased, if citations aren’t included in each sentence a source is used, it could be considered plagiarism.
I’ll give examples of ways to avoid these types of plagiarism in the next couple of slides.

9. What We Cite Using quotations My source paragraph:
Differentiation as an instructional approach promotes a balance between a student’s style and a student’s ability (Tomlinson, 2008). Differentiated instruction provides the student with options for processing and internalizing the content, and for constructing new learning in order to progress academically (Campbell, 2009).
In these next couple of slides I’m going to be quoting and paraphrasing these few sentences from an actual source that I found online. My first example is quoting. So, if this was your source, the next slide will show ways you could quote and properly cite the source.

10. What We Cite Using quotations:
Bad Differentiation as an instructional approach promotes a balance between a student’s style and a student’s ability (Thompson, 2009, p. 2).
Okay: “Differentiation as an instructional approach promotes a balance between a student’s style and a student’s ability” (Thompson, 2009, p. 2).
I’m going to present a few different examples of quotations of the paragraph in my source from the previous slide.
The first example here is the worst example, one that is plagiarized. While I’ve given credit to the source with a citation at the end, I haven’t used quotation marks to show that these words are actually the exact words the source uses. This would be considered a plagiarized sentence.
The second example is a direct quote of an entire sentence from the source. Note how I’ve used quotation marks around all of the words from the source, as well as including a citation to my source. This ensures that the reader knows that this phrasing is actually taken from a source and tells the reader which source you used with the citation.
I’ve labeled this quote “okay,” however, because although it is cited correctly, quoting an entire sentence like this doesn’t show how you are engaging with the text. Like I was talking about before, you’ll want to use your quotations smartly. Not only will only 10% or less of your paper be quotations, you’ll also want to integrate your quotations into your own words. This helps show ways you are engaging with the quote, instead of simply inserting it.
Let’s look at the next examples for better ways to use quotes.

11. What We Cite Using quotations:
Better: However, “differentiation as an instructional approach promotes a balance between a student’s style and a student’s ability” (Thompson, 2009, p. 2).
Even better:
According to Thompson (2009), differentiation in teaching helps students by giving “options for processing and internalizing the content” (pp. 2-3).
In this “better” example, I’ve properly used quotation marks and a citation to tell the reader (1) I’m using another author’s words; (2) which words belong to the source and which belong to me; and (3) which author these quoted words belong to. Note how I’ve introduced the quote with the transitional word “however.” This helps to transition the reader into the quote, going from your own voice as the author of the paper into the voice of the quote.
The last example is “even better,” though. I’ve continued to use quotation marks and citations to tell the reader which words are being quoted and where this quote is from, but see how I’ve integrated this quote into my own sentence, only citing a small part of the source. This sentence shows the reader how I am engaging with the source and using it in my own way. I’m picking and choosing which part of the source’s information I want to include, only using the part that most directly relates to the point I want to make.

12. What We Cite Paraphrasing: We paraphrase to:
Ideas or information from a source that you’ve placed in your own words
We paraphrase to:
Give our own explanation and analysis of ideas
Provide credibility to our own argument
If a sentence includes data or ideas from a source, a citation is needed
Now that we’ve covered quotations, we need to also discuss paraphrasing. Remember that as we discussed before, paraphrasing is taking ideas or information from a source and expressing them in your own words. Scholars use paraphrasing to give our own explanation and analysis of ideas other scholars have presented. This helps us to use research to support our ideas. Paraphrasing gives credibility to scholars’ arguments, supporting our own ideas. Paraphrasing is also all about establishing a writer’s voice. Paraphrasing helps us writers establish our own “voice” instead of always relying on the “voice” of a source.
Paraphrasing is how you should be using most of the sources in your writing. Paraphrasing is really important because it allows you to read your sources, learn about their ideas, and then incorporate those ideas into your own paper and ideas. In APA, if a sentence includes data or ideas from a source, a citation is still needed. This means that a citation is needed in each sentence that includes this data or ideas. You won’t cite a source just at the end of a paragraph or after a few sentences where you’ve paraphrased that source, but literally in each and every sentence you have paraphrased that source.

13. What We Cite Using paraphrasing: Using paraphrasing:
Differentiation as an instructional approach promotes a balance between a student’s style and a student’s ability (Tomlinson, 2008). Differentiated instruction provides the student with options for processing and internalizing the content, and for constructing new learning in order to progress academically (Campbell, 2009).
Bad: Differentiation is a way to encourage equality between the approach and talent of the student (Thompson, 2009). This type of instruction gives students different ways to deal with and grasp information, and for establishing new learning to move on in education (Thompson, 2009).
Using paraphrasing:
Differentiation as an instructional approach promotes a balance between a student’s style and a student’s ability (Tomlinson, 2008). Differentiated instruction provides the student with options for processing and internalizing the content, and for constructing new learning in order to progress academically (Campbell, 2009).
Bad: Differentiation is a way to encourage equality between the approach and talent of the student (Thompson, 2009). This type of instruction gives students different ways to deal with and grasp information, and for establishing new learning to move on in education (Thompson, 2009).
Here’s our sample from my source that I used to demonstrate quoting before and my first example of a paraphrasing.
Note that I’ve labeled this first example as “bad” because it is considered to be plagiarized. When comparing my paraphrase to the source, note how I’ve only changed a few key words [CLICK] (those that are underlined). For example, I’ve used “way” instead of “approach,” “encourage” instead of “promotes,” “equality” instead of “balance,” “approach” instead of “style” and “talent” instead of “ability”. You can see in the next sentence that only a few words are changed and switched out for synonyms.
Note also how I’ve used the exact same sentence structure here. This also shows how I haven’t actually incorporated these ideas into my own words and ideas. This is still considered plagiarism because the same sentence structure and types of words are being used.
Instead of using a source’s ideas for my own purposes, I’ve parroted the ideas of the source.

14. What We Cite Using paraphrasing:
Better: Teachers use differentiated instruction to help students learn, allowing the teacher to cater lessons to the way each student learns and each students’ skill (Thompson, 2009).
Here is a better paraphrasing of the source. Here I’ve taken the main ideas of the source’s two sentences, but placed them in my own words, using a different sentence structure and vocabulary. The reader still knows that these main ideas are coming from the source, but you can imagine this sentence appearing in my own paper to help support one of my own ideas.
Remember, then, that you’ll use paraphrasing to help incorporate ideas from a source into your paper own paper. If I was writing a paper about a plan to introduce differentiated instruction into the classroom, for example, I might use this sentence as evidence from my source that differentiation is beneficial to students.

15. How We Cite Paraphrasing: (Author, Year)
Quotations: (Author, Year, p. xx)
Student diversity is one variable that must be considered in meeting the academic needs of students (Smith & McTighe, 2006). According to Tomlinson (1991), differentiated instruction is an approach that effectively engages students through different levels and modalities to address the existing academic diversity. Conversely, Tomlinson stated that “as a result of a lack of sufficient research, few studies document the effectiveness of differentiated instruction on student learning” (p. 19).
Now that we know what to cite, we’ll cover how to cite quotations and paraphrasing.
Whenever you’ve paraphrased a source, you’ll include the last name of the author or authors, along with the publication year of the source. For quotations, you’ll include the author or authors, the publication year, but also the page or paragraph number where you’ve found that quote. This additional information helps the reader to be able to find that specific quote in the source better.
Here are some examples of these citations in the paragraph taken from the source we’ve been using. Note how the author uses a parenthetical citation for the first sentence, as both the authors and the year is within parenthesis. In the second, the author names the source used in the sentence, called an in-text citation, then includes the publication year in parenthesis. Then, in the last sentence, the source is named and the page number included for the quote.

16. How We Cite Citation frequency: Why? Citing sources often:
Cite each and every sentence that includes paraphrased information
Why? Citing sources often:
Ensures the reader knows exactly when you are using a source and which source you are using
Otherwise, the reader might think sentences are based on your own ideas and information
Another aspect of citing we need to remember is how often we should cite in our papers. As we discussed before, if we don’t cite enough, we could inadvertently plagiarize a source. So, we’ll need to cite in each and every sentence that includes paraphrased information. Citing often ensures that readers know exactly when you are using which source in your paper, never leaving any doubt in the reader’s mind. Otherwise, the reader might think sentences are based on your own ideas and information.

17. How We Cite Too little citing:
Teachers use differentiated instruction to help students learn, allowing the teacher to cater lessons to the way each student learns and each students’ skill. Differentiation in teaching helps students by giving for learning in different ways. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) sets rigid standards for teachers, which does not allow for this multidisciplinary approach that differentiation asks for. In this way, NCLB is not compatible with differentiation in the classroom (Thompson, 2009).
Here we have some examples of a paragraph I’ve paraphrased from our source that doesn’t have enough citing. Note that I’ve cited in the last sentence of the paragraph, but no where else. Just including this one citation doesn’t quite giving the reader enough information. Because each sentence in this paragraph uses information from this source, the reader needs to see a citation after each sentence, [Click] like I’ve circled here.

18. How We Cite Too much citing: Too much citing:
Teachers use differentiated instruction to help students learn, allowing the teacher to cater lessons to the way each student learns and each students’ skill (Thompson, 2009). According to Thompson, differentiation in teaching helps students by giving for learning in different ways (Thompson, 2009). No Child Left Behind (NCLB) sets rigid standards for teachers, which does not allow for this multidisciplinary approach that differentiation asks for (Thompson, 2009). In this way, Thompson explained, NCLB is not compatible with differentiation in the classroom (Thompson, 2009).
Too much citing:
Teachers use differentiated instruction to help students learn, allowing the teacher to cater lessons to the way each student learns and each students’ skill (Thompson, 2009). According to Thompson (2009), differentiation in teaching helps students by giving for learning in different ways. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) sets rigid standards for teachers, which does not allow for this multidisciplinary approach that differentiation asks for (Thompson, 2009). In this way, Thompson explained, NCLB is not compatible with differentiation in the classroom.
In this example, I’ve cited too much. Although we need citations in each sentence, we don’t need to cite more than once in a sentence. I’ve underlined the citations I’ve included in these sentences. [Click] Now, see the citations I’ve circled—in these sentences, the source is cited more than once. Instead, here’s what I should have done: [Click] Note how the author is only mentioned once in the sentence, whether in-text or parenthetical. This gives the reader enough information to know where my information is coming from, but doesn’t weigh down the paragraph with more citations than are needed.

19. How We Cite Note on publication years:
Always needed in parenthetical citations
(Thompson, 2009)
Only needed in the first in-text citation of a source
All subsequent citations do not need publication year
New paragraph: rule starts over
Example: Thompson (2009) explained how differentiation is connected to No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In essence, Thompson stated that NCLB hinders a teacher’s ability to use differentiation.
I wanted to quickly mention a tricky APA rule with citations. In APA, publication years are always needed in parenthetical citations, like this first example. [Click] There is no exception for this.
However, in the actual sentences of your papers, citations are only needed in the first citation of a source in a paragraph. All subsequent citations do not need the publication year.
This, however, only works for citations of the same source within the same paragraph. Once you start a new paragraph or are citing a new source, the rule starts over.
This rule is to help scholars who work with the same source in the same paragraph, helping to make some citations a bit more concise. Here’s an example for you: See how I’ve included the publication year in the first sentence. In the next sentence, though, where I’m mentioning the author within the sentence, no year is needed.

20. How We Cite Just enough citing:
Teachers use differentiated instruction to help students learn, allowing the teacher to cater lessons to the way each student learns and each students’ skill (Thompson, 2009). According to Thompson (2009), differentiation in teaching helps students by giving for learning in different ways. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) sets rigid standards for teachers, which does not allow for this multidisciplinary approach that differentiation asks for (Thompson, 2009). In this way, Thompson explained, NCLB is not compatible with differentiation in the classroom.
Now in this example, we have an example where I’ve cited just enough. This is the example I used before for fixing when I cited too much. See the frequency of these citations, though, how the citations are included in each sentence. When you’ve paraphrased a source, this is how your paragraphs should look.

21. How We Cite Characteristics of enough citing:
Each sentence using information from the source gives credit to the source
Sources are not cited twice in one sentence
Publication years are only needed in the first in-text citation
To recap, then, characteristics of enough citing is that each sentence using information from the source gives credit to the source; sources aren’t cited twice in one sentence; and publication years are only needed in the first in-text citation of a source in a paragraph.

22. Reference List Citations’ purpose are to point to your reference list
Reference lists include publication information for a source
The reader might want to:
Check your accuracy
Find more information about its topic and ideas
While we have focused on citations, one purpose of citations is to direct the reader to the reference list. The reference list includes all of the pertinent publication information needed for the reader to find the source. Readers may want to do this if they’d like to check the accuracy of the information you are presenting or if they would like to find out more about the topic and the source’s ideas.
Including a reference list, then, is an important component of adequately citing your sources.

23. Reference List Basic book: Basic online article:
Author, A., & Author, B. (Year). Title of the book goes here. City, XX: Publisher.
Basic online article:
Author, A., & Author, B. (Year). Title of the article goes here. Title of the Journal Goes Here, x(x). pp. xx-xx. doi: xxxx-xxxx
Here are some examples of basic reference entries. This first entry is for a book that you’ve accessed in print. Note how the information in our in-text citations (author or authors and the publication year) are included first and then the title of the book and the publication location and publisher is also included.
This order might seem a little random, but APA actually has a reason behind this decision. If you think about how the reader will be approaching your paper, he or she will first see an in-text citation for an idea they are interested in. If the reader then wants to find out more information about that idea, he or she will check the reference list for that source, first looking for the author/publication year combination of the in-text citation. That’s why this information is listed first. Then, the reader will want to find the source for his or her own use, so the publication information will help the reader do this. So really, APA structured all of these entries in a pretty smart way!
Similar information is also included in the online article entry below, although a bit more information is included. This includes the title of the journal the article appears in, the volume and issue number, the page numbers of the article, and the doi number. The doi number is sort of like an ISBN number for articles, with each article being given its own doi number to identify it.

24. Reference List Reference list formatting:
Website:
Citing electronic sources:
Common examples:
APA Style FAQ:
Reference list entries can vary greatly depending on the type of source you are using and how you are accessing the source, so if you have any questions about reference entries we have some great resources for you. Because this presentation focuses more on citations and paraphrasing, I won’t go in-depth on reference entry formats, but please feel free to let me know if you have specific questions.
Additionally, the Writing Center’s website devotes a portion of the page to reference entries, including information about citing electronic sources and examples of different types of sources. Let’s quickly take a tour of all the resources the Writing Center has for reference entries.

25. Recap!
Citations of quotes and paraphrasing maintains your credibility and integrity
Citations are needed for all:
Quotes (word-for-word phrasing from a source)
Paraphrasing (expressing ideas and data from a source in your own words)
Citations are used in each and every sentence quotes or paraphrasing is used
Citations point to the reference list so the reader can find the actual source
Okay, let’s quickly recap the immense amount of information we’ve covered so far. As we’ve discussed, citations are important because they maintain your credibility and integrity, giving credit where credit is due and avoiding plagiarism. Additionally, citations are needed for all sentences that quote and paraphrase a source, which includes each and every sentence that uses these quotes and paraphrasing. Lastly, citations point readers to the reference list so readers can find the actual source if they wish.

26. Resources Plagiarism: http://writingcenter.waldenu.edu/63.htm
Paraphrasing:
Citations:
Now that we’ve covered why, what, and how we cite, I’d like to introduce a few resources you can use to help you properly cite your sources. These first resources are found on the Writing Center website and cover what plagiarism is, how to paraphrase, and how to properly format your citations. Let’s take a look at these.

27. Resources Grammarly: automated grammar checker
Turnitin: automated plagiarism checker
Paper reviews
Writing Center User Guide:
These next resources are a bit more involved, so I’d like to take a little more time explaining them.
Grammarly is an automated grammar checker that all Walden students can access for free through our home page. While Grammarly is mainly used to check the mechanics and spelling of a paper, it also has a limited plagiarism checker that will compare your paper to sources online. Although this isn’t the most extensive plagiarism tool, it can give you a basic idea of whether you may need to cite your sources a bit more or use more quotation marks.
Turnitin is a program specifically geared towards checking for plagiarism. Most Walden classes have Turnitin accounts where professors often ask students to submit papers. However, the Writing Center also has a Turnitin account that students can use, which is a bit different. When you submit your paper to Turnitin through your class, your paper is then added to the overall Turnitin database, so all subsequent submissions will match to your own paper. However, the Writing Center’s account doesn’t add students’ papers to the overall database, so it’s considered a “safe” place to check for plagiarism.
The last tool I wanted to mention was the Writing Center’s one-on-one paper reviews. If you are concerned about your citation frequency, format, or even plagiarism, feel free to make a review for your paper, noting at the top of your draft your specific concerns. The Writing Center’s User Guide includes information about how to use Grammarly, Turnitin, as well as make a review for a paper, so let’s take a look at that quickly.

28. Questions? writingsupport@waldenu.edu
That’s all I have for you today concerning using and crediting sources. If for any reason you’d like to review this or any of our other webinars, as well as download these actual PowerPoint slides, you can access recordings and the slides on our website. These should be posted within 24 hours for you.
If you have any questions in the future, please feel free to submit those to us at we are always happy to help! I’m also happy to answer any questions you might have now, so feel free to let me know if you have any. If you don’t have any questions, though, you’re also free to leave. Thank you for attending, everyone, and have a wonderful evening!