APA 6 Style Guide

Give credit in the text to exact quotations as well as paraphrases of information and ideas.
There are three ways to cite sources in the text:

1.Statements followed by the citation in parentheses.

• ​(Exact Quote) "...mothers who are overly strict and harshly punitive...who strongly show their anger or disappointment with their children, are likely to impede their children's prosocial development" (Hastings et al., 2000, p. 543).
• (Exact Quote with no page numbers -- use section and paragraph) "...mothers who are extremely strict...may impede their children's prosocial development" (Hastings et al., 2000, Conclusion section, para. 4).
• (Paraphrase) Extremely critical mothers might warp children's social development (Hastings et al., 2000).
  [Note: This is not a good paraphrase; it changes just a few words. You are encouraged to include page or paragraph numbers if it will assist the reader in finding the passage in a long or complex text.]

2. Statement, which includes the author(s) name(s), with the year in parentheses.

• Hastings et al. (2000) found that overly strict mothers...

3. Statement, which includes the author(s) name(s) and the year.

• A 2000 study by Hastings et al. determined that...

Note: For in-text citations with three, four or five authors, list all names followed by commas the first time, and only first author followed by et al. and date for subsequent cites; for six or more authors, use the abbreviation et al. following the first author name for all citations.

When a direct quote includes 40 or more words, you must display it as a block quote. Block quotes are free-standing blocks of text and have several unique characteristics. When using a block quote, you should start the quote on a new line, indent the block a half inch from the left margin, and omit the quotation marks. Include the cited source and the page number in parentheses after the final punctuation mark. 

Example:

According to some, which brand of computer you prefer may be a good indicator of certain personality traits:

Although researchers have not clearly differentiated the personalities of users of different brands, personality traits may play a more nuanced role in relation to brand preferences. In our study, although PC and Mac users were not distinguishable in terms of Big Five personality traits, these personality traits were associated with judged importance consumers placed on detriments of their choice of computer brands.  (Nevid & Pastva, 2014, p. 35)