This APA referencing style guide provides some insight into APA style rules. Browse the left panel to learn how to cite in text, create a reference list and find examples for citing different types of sources.
Where there is uncertainty in citing a particular source, check your course guidelines and clarify with your lecturers.
If you are not able to find reference examples from this guide, the APA manual and other online resources, you may try the following options:
Referencing is about acknowledging the ownership of resources used in your academic writing, and provides information necessary to identify and retrieve the work cited in the text.
There are many different referencing styles. At AUT most courses use the APA reference style.
APA referencing style is an author-date referencing system published by the American Psychological Association.
There are two components in the APA referencing style: in-text citations and their corresponding reference list entries. With anything that you have read, used and referred to in your academic writing, you must:
You may use a reference software to manage your references. The most popular software are EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero.
A reference list lists only the sources you refer to in your writing.
The purpose of the reference list is to allow your sources to be be found by your reader. It also gives credit to authors you have consulted for their ideas. All references cited in the text must appear in the reference list, except for personal communications (such as conversations or emails) which cannot be retrieved.
A bibliography is different from a reference list as it lists all the sources used during your research and background reading, not just the ones you refer to in your writing.