DOCUMENTING YOUR SOURCES1

Introduction
Format for Documentation
Using The APA Documentation Style
Writing APA In-Text Citations
Writing an APA Reference List
Print Sources
Electronic Sources
Other Sources

1 Summarized from the textbook Technical Communication A Reader-Centred Approach, 4th Edition by Paul
V. Anderson, McGraw-Hill, Appendix B

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In this lesson we will:
1) Learn about the APA Documentation Style
2) Review the requirements of the final report using the Handbook.
1. INTRODUCTION
In many of the communications you will write at work, you will want to tell your readers about
other sources of information concerning your subject. The reasons being:

To acknowledge the people and sources that have provided you with ideas and
information.
To help your readers find additional information about something you have discussed.
To persuade your readers to pay serious attention to a particular idea.
To explain how your research contributes to the development of new knowledge in your
field.

2. FORMAT FOR DOCUMENTATION

There are a variety of formats for documentation the two most widely used are the APA
(American Psychological Association) and the MLA (Modern Language Association. Most
engineering journals follow a style similar to the APA. This is the style expected in this course.

3. USING THE APA DOCUMENTATION STYLE

The following sections explain how to write in-text citations and the entries in a reference list
using the APA style.

3.1.Writing APA In-Text Citations

To write an APA in-text citation, enclose the authors last name and the year of
publication in parentheses inside your normal punctuation. Place a comma between the
authors name and date. If you are citing a specific page, then use p., and if citing more
than one page, use pp.
The first crab caught in the trap attracts others to it (Tanner, 1998, pp. 33-34).

If you incorporate the authors name in the sentence itself, give only the year and pages
(if any) in parentheses.
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According to Tanner (1998, pp. 33-34), the first crab caught in the trap attracts
others to it.

Here are some other types of citations:

(Horflin & Bolsen, 1997)
(Wilton, Nelson, & Dutta, 1932)

First citation for three, four or five authors

(Wilton et al., 1932)

Second and subsequent citations for 3 to 5 authors

(Norton et al., 1994)

First and subsequent citation for six or more authors

(Angstrom, 1998, p. 34)

Reference to a particular page

(U.S. department of Energy, 1999) Government or corporate author

3.2.Writing an APA Reference List

Illustrated and shown below are APA reference list entries for the most common types
of print, electronic, and other sources.
Print Sources
1. Book (One author)
Jacobs, J.R. (1998). The scientific revolution: Aspirations and achievements, 15001700. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.

Give the authors last name followed by a comma and initials (not full first or
middle names).
Place the copyright date in parentheses, followed by a period.
Italicize or underline the title, and capitalize only the first word of the title, the
first word of the subtitle (if any), and proper nouns.
Follow the city of publication with a comma and the two letter postal
abbreviation for the state (however, do not give the state for cities such as New
York that are well known for publishing).
Indent the second and subsequent lines.

2. Book, Two or More Authors

Talbert, S.H., & bertal, A. (1996). Elementary mechanics of plastic flow in metal
forming. New York: Wiley
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Abernathy, B., Kippers, V., Mackinnon,L.T., Neal, R.J., & Garten, S. (1997). The
biophysical foundations of human movement. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

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3. Anthology or Essay Collection

Litz, P.K., & Misick, J.A. (Eds). (1997). The biology of sea turtles. Boca Raton. FL:
CRC Press.

If there is only one editor, use (Ed.).

4. Second or Subsequent Edition

Olin, H.N., Schmidt, J.J., & Lewis, W.H. (1995). Construction: Principles, materials
and methods (6th ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
5. Government Report
Frankfort, J.K., & Remmons, P.J. (1997). Potential effects of large floods on the
transport of silt into the Wheterfront aquifer in Nebraska (U.S. Geological
Survey Water-Resources Investigation Report 96-4272). Denver, CO: U.S.
Geological Survey.

If the report doesnt list an author, use the name of the agency that
published it as the author. If it is a United States government agency, use
the abbreviation U.S. Example: U.S. Geological Survey.
If the report has an identifying number, place it immediately after the
title.

6. Corporate Report
Daimler-Benz AG. (1997). Environmental report 1997. Stuttgart, Germany: Author.

List the names of the individual authors rather than the corporation if the names
are given on the title page.
If the names of the individual authors are not given on the title page, list the
corporation as the author.
When the author and the publisher are the same, use the word Author as the
name of the publisher.

7. Essay in a Book
Sullivan, K.J. (1999). Ethics in the computer age. In J.M. Kizza (Ed), Social and
ethical effects of the computer revolution (pp. 288-297). Jefferson, NC:
McFarland.
8. Paper in a Proceedings
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Youra, S. (1996). Placing writing in engineering education. In R. Pose & A. Jawary

(Eds.), Proceedings of the Australian Communication Conference (pp. 59-76).
Melbourne, Australia: Monash University.
9. Encyclopedia Article
Rich, E. (1998). Artificial intelligence. In Encyclopedia Americana (Vol.2, pp. 407412). Danbury, CT: Grollier.

10. Pamphlet or Brochure

Ohio Department of Natural Resources. (1996). Ring-necked pheasant management in
Ohio. [Pamphlet]. Columbus, OH: Author.

When the author and publisher are the same, use the word Author as the
name of the publisher.

11. Article in a Journal That Numbers Its Pages Continuously through Each
Volume
McLaurin, J. & Chakrabartty, A. (1997). Characterization of the interactions of
Alzheimers beta-amyloid peptides with phospholipid membranes. European
Journal of Biochemistry, 245, 355-363.

After the journals name, add a comma and the volume number (in
italics).
The word Alzheimer is capitalized because it is a proper name.

12. Article in Journal That Numbers Its Pages Separately for Each Issue
Bradley, J., & Soulodre, G. (1997). The acoustics of concert halls. Physics World, 10
(5), 33-37.

After the journal title, include the volume number, followed by the issue
number (in parentheses).
Put the volume numberbut not the issue numberin italics.

13. Article in a Popular Magazine

Cowley, G. (1997, April 28). Cardiac contagion. Newsweek, 129, 69-70.
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Give the full date of the issue, placing the year first.
Provide the volume number (in the example: 129) but not the issue
number.

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14. Newspaper Article

Wade, N. (1997, May 24). Doctors record signals of brain cells linked to memory. New
York Times [National edition], p.A8.

In front of the page number for newspapers, write p. (for one page) or
pp. (for more than one page).

15. Article with No Author Listed

Rethinking traditional design. (1997). Manufacturing Engineering, 118(2), 50.

Begin with the articles title. This example gives the issue number in
parentheses because the journal numbers its pages separately for each
issue (see Example 12 above).

Electronic Sources
Note: Because placing a period at the end of an Internet address can cause confusion,
final periods are omitted in APA entries for on-line sources.

16. Text Available Only at a World Wide Web Site

International Business Machines. IBM web design guidelines. (1998, March).
[On-line].Available:http;//www.ibm.com/IBM/HCI/guidelines/web/
web_design.html
17. Text Downloaded from an FTP Site
Modjeska, D., & Marsh, A. (1997, July). Structure and memorability of Web sites.
University of Toronto computer Systems Research Institute. Available FTP: ftp://
ftp.cs.toronto.edu/csri-technical-reports/364

18. On-Line Journal Article That is Not Available in Print

Toll, D. (1996). Artificial intelligence applications in geotechnical engineering.
Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering. [On-line serial]. Available:
http://geotech.civen.okstate.edu/ejge/JournTOC.htm

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19. On-line Journal Article That is Also Available in Print

Reid, M.E., Green, C.A., Hoffer, J., Oyen, R. (1996). Effect of pronase on highincidence blood group antigens and the prevalence of antibodies to pronasetreated erythrocytes. Immunohematology, 12, 139-142. Available:
http://biomend.redcross.org/immuneohematology/issues.htm
20. On-Line Posting at a Newsgroup
Cite in the text only, not in the reference list:
(D.J. Young, on-line newsgroup posting, November 10, 1997, Logging on our
national forests, Usenet alt.great-lakes)

21. CD-ROM
Rainforest. (1997). Encarta 97 [CD-ROM]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft.

22. E-mail
Cite in the text only, not in the reference list:
(M. Grube, e-mail to Justin Timor, December 4, 1998)

Other Sources

23. Letter
The APA style includes references to letters only in parentheses in the text, not in the
reference list. The parenthetical citation in the text includes the authors initials as
well as his or her last name and an exact date.
(L.A. Cawthorne, personal communication, August 24, 1998)

24.

Interview

The APA style treats interviews the same way it treats letters (see above).
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