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Research Skills

Information to help students find, evaluate, reference, and write for their assignments

APA Referencing at Wintec

APA Referencing at Wintec

All of Wintec uses APA Referencing, the referencing system developed and published by the American Psychological Association. Currently we use the 6th edition. This LibGuide contains the specificities of APA in common academic use, and covers Frequently Asked Questions as well as detailed coverage of both Nursing and Visual Media resources, and the accepted APA US state abbreviations.


Use the pages and subpages at left to navigate, or choose from the following guides:

APA Referencing LibGuide

APA Referencing - Nursing Resources

APA Referencing Visual Media Guide

APA Referencing FAQs

U.S. State Abbreviations

APA Referencing Guide [PDF]

What does an APA Reference look like?


Reference list entries and in-text citations look different for different kinds of resources. A book reference is different from a journal article reference, and a webpage is different again - but they all have a lot of the same information in them. Have a look at these reference examples and see if it makes sense to you!

Remember, you can always look at the Wintec APA Referencing Guide or ask for help! You don't have to figure out referencing on your own.


1. In-text Citation: BOOKS

APA referencing parts


2. Reference list entry: BOOKS

APA referencing


APA References for journal articles, and webpages look different

And there are lots of other kinds of references too! Remember to check the Wintec APA Guide to get your reference format.

Example of in-text and reference

Essay on referencing - by S. Librarian.
 
"To avoid plagiarism, take careful notes as you research to keep track of all sources and collect the information you need to cite them properly" (American Psychological Association (APA), 2015, para 2). Furthermore, Pears and Shields (2008) state thatreferences can strengthen your writing and can help you attain a better mark or grade” (p. 11).  You need to reference both when paraphrasing and quoting (APA, 2010, p. 10). Paraphrasing is when you take someone else’s facts and ideas and put them into your own words (APA, 2010, p. 15).  If you are going to quote you must remember that direct quotations must begin and end with quotation marks” (Pulver & Adcock, 2010, p. 18).  It can be difficult to correctly cite sources such as Web references in your work; it is therefore advisable to use a referencing guide to assist you (Kelly, 2000, p. 95).
 
Reference List

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological

Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

American Psychological Association. (2015). The basics of APA Style: Citing references in text.

Retrieved from http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm?__utma=185732729.490969194.1430954958.1430954958.1430954958.1&

__utmb=185732729.26.10.1430954958&__utmc=185732729&__utmx=-&_

_utmz=185732729.1430954958.1.1.utmcsr=%28direct%29|utmccn=%28direct%29|utmcmd=%28none%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=260651277

Kelly, K.R. (2000). Author guidelines for electronic references. Journal of Mental Health Counseling.

22(2), 95-96.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost database.

Pears, R., & Shields, G. (2008). Cite them right: The essential referencing guide (3rd ed.).  Newcastle

upon Tyne, England: Pear Tree Books.

Pulver, B. & Adcock, D. (2010). Information literacy skills: Organizing and using information.

London, England: Heinemann.

To indent the second line of each reference, select/highlight your reference list and press Ctrl + Tab.

Why do I need to reference??

Why do I need to reference??

1. Plagiarism!

When you do an assignment, you have to find resources - books, ebooks, journal articles, and information from reliable websites. The ideas you get from those resources are not your ideas. If you write a paper without giving credit to those resources for the ideas from them that you use, that is plagiarism. It a kind of academic stealing. Referencing means you're not claiming someone else's ideas as your own.

2. It shows how hard you worked on your assignment, and how much you learned researching it.

Most assignments aren't easy, and they can take a lot of time and effort. Referencing shows your tutor how hard you worked, that you did a lot of research and found relevant, useful resources on your topic. It makes it easy to see that you've thought about your assignment, looked up new information, and learned things from writing it.

3. It lets other people find and use the resources you cite - and means you can find and use theirs and too!

All research builds on other people's ideas. As a student, you do a lot research for your assignments, and experts in your field do the same when they try to discover new things. You can use the references in a book or journal article to help you do your assignment, and experts do the same when they write those books and journal articles - they use other people's references to learn things. When more people learn about the things you've learned and referenced, everyone benefits.

(It's also really helpful for you as you study - if you remember a book had a really great chapter on something for your next assignment, your reference means you can easily find that book again!)