Almost every APA citation is author and date. The rest is edge cases
Two pieces of information, in one of two places. Once that is clear, what remains is a short list of situations that look complicated and each have a settled answer. This covers the common ones with examples.
Start with the two forms, because everything else is a variation
An APA in-text citation carries the author’s surname and the year. It goes in one of two places, and which you choose is a matter of emphasis rather than correctness.
Parenthetical puts both in brackets at the end of the sentence:
Parenthetical
Nursing students consistently underestimate the reading load of licensure examinations (Okafor, 2021).
Narrative puts the author into the sentence and the year straight after the name:
Narrative
Okafor (2021) found that nursing students consistently underestimate the reading load of licensure examinations.
Use narrative when the author matters to your argument, such as when you are contrasting two researchers. Use parenthetical when the finding matters and the author does not. Mixing both across a paragraph is normal and reads better than either alone.
Add a page number whenever you quote
Direct quotations always take a location. Use p. for a single page and pp. for a range.
Direct quotation
The report described the change as "a structural shift rather than a fluctuation" (Okafor, 2021, p. 14).
For a source with no page numbers, such as a web page, use a paragraph number (para. 4) or a section heading. Paraphrases do not require a page number, although APA encourages one where it would genuinely help a reader locate the material.
The author cases that cause most of the trouble
| Situation | In-text form |
|---|---|
| One author | (Okafor, 2021) |
| Two authors | (Okafor & Raine, 2021) |
| Three or more | (Okafor et al., 2021) from the first citation |
| Group author, first use | (National Council of State Boards of Nursing [NCSBN], 2026) |
| Group author, after that | (NCSBN, 2026) |
| No author | (“Title of the Page,” 2021) |
| No date | (Okafor, n.d.) |
| Two works, same brackets | (Okafor, 2021; Raine, 2019) |
Two points people get wrong. The ampersand is used inside brackets and the word “and” is used in narrative form: (Okafor & Raine, 2021) but Okafor and Raine (2021) found. And multiple works in one set of brackets go in alphabetical order, separated by semicolons, not in date order.
Same author, same year, different works
If you cite two works by the same author published in the same year, letter them: 2021a, 2021b. The letters are assigned by the alphabetical order of the titles in your reference list, not by which you cited first. So you usually cannot finalise them until the reference list is built.
Same author, same year
Earlier work established the pattern (Okafor, 2021a), and a follow-up study found it persisted across settings (Okafor, 2021b).
Block quotations reverse the punctuation rule
Quotations of 40 words or more become block quotations: a new line, the whole block indented half an inch, no quotation marks. The part people get wrong is the punctuation. In a short quotation the citation comes before the final period. In a block quotation it comes after.
Short quotation, citation before the period
The authors called it "a structural shift rather than a fluctuation" (Okafor, 2021, p. 14).
Block quotation, citation after the period
The pattern held across every category measured, including those where volume had fallen. (Okafor, 2021, p. 14)
Secondary sources: cite what you read
If you read Okafor discussing Bandura’s work and you have not read Bandura, you cite Okafor. The form is:
Secondary source
Self-efficacy beliefs shape how long a person persists at a difficult task (Bandura, 1977, as cited in Okafor, 2021).
Only Okafor goes in your reference list. Use this sparingly. Graders read a page full of “as cited in” as a sign that the original sources were never consulted, and where the original is easily obtainable you are generally expected to read it.
A check that takes two minutes
Before you submit, run three passes over the document.
Every in-text citation has a matching reference list entry, and every reference list entry is cited at least once in the text. Mismatches in either direction are among the most commonly penalised errors and are entirely mechanical to catch.
Every direct quotation has a page or paragraph number. Search the document for quotation marks and check each one.
Every work with three or more authors uses et al. from its first appearance. If you have written an APA 6 paper before, this is the habit most likely to survive into your APA 7 document.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not required, though APA encourages it when it would help a reader find the passage in a long work. Direct quotations always need a page or paragraph number. If you are paraphrasing a specific argument from a 400-page book, including the page is a kindness to your reader and never counts against you.
Use the first author followed by et al. from the very first citation. APA 7 changed this from APA 6, which used all authors the first time. So it is (Okafor et al., 2021) every time, including the first.
Move the title into the author position. Use italics for a standalone work such as a report, and quotation marks for part of a greater whole such as a web page or article. If the author is a group such as an agency, the group is the author.
Use n.d. in place of the year, so (Ministry of Health, n.d.). Check carefully first, because many web pages carry a date in the page source or at the foot even when the article does not show one prominently.
Cite the source you actually read, using as cited in. So (Bandura, 1977, as cited in Okafor, 2021). Only the source you read goes in the reference list. Wherever the original is obtainable, it is better to find and read it, and most graders expect you to.
Not necessarily. If it is clear the whole paragraph draws on one source, cite it at the first mention and again if there is any chance of ambiguity, particularly if you introduce your own analysis partway through. The test is whether a reader can always tell whose idea they are reading.
As a block quotation: start it on a new line, indent the whole block half an inch, drop the quotation marks, and put the citation after the final punctuation rather than before it. That last detail is reversed from short quotations and is a very common error.
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