The way that you have captured source material — whether in your own words or in a quotation — affects how you present and credit it. Always identify words taken directly from a source by using quotation marks or the indented form for a long “block” quotation. Specify the location of quoted words. If you present in your own words material from a specific place in your source, APA also recommends that you add the location. A citation, but no location, is needed for general information, such as your summary of an overall finding.

To identify the location of material in a source, supply the page number. For an unpaginated source, especially online, give the paragraph number it supplies (para. 3). Otherwise, give the section name (or a short version), and identify the paragraph within the section (Methods section, para. 2). If appropriate, identify other parts: Chapter 5, Figure 2, Table 3.

The next few examples illustrate how Emily Lavery varied her presentation of sources in her paper “A New Time: Female Education and Teachers in Western Territories” about education during the mid-1800s.

Overall Summary or Important Idea

Horace Mann and other educational reformers began the Common School Movement, advocating for public primary schools (Nasaw, 1979, p. 30). The movement was revolutionary for education and marked the first attempt to create public school systems, across the United States and all its territories, in order to educate the youth.

Blended Paraphrase and Quotation

According to Hoffman (2003), Mann’s movement sought to develop the “informal rural schools supported by parents” (p. 30) and establish a state-sponsored school system.

Brief Quotation Integrated in Sentence

Jennifer Madigan (2009) defined a dame school as a “school influenced by the English model of home instruction for small groups of children” (p. 11).

Long Quotation

If you quote forty words or more, indent the quotation one-half inch and double-space it instead of using quotation marks. After it, add your citation with no additional period, including whatever information you have not already mentioned in your launch statement.

Emma Willard and Catharine Beecher fought for female educational opportunities, such as a more inclusive curriculum and higher educational opportunities. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton published the “Declaration of Sentiments” at the Seneca Falls Convention to address and rectify the wrongs done to women, including this resolution:

That the speedy success of our cause depends upon the zealous and untiring efforts of both men and women, for the overthrow of the monopoly of the pulpit, and for securing to woman an equal participation with men in the various trades, professions, and commerce. (p. 73)