Citing Your Sources in APA Style

Citation: A (Very) Brief Introduction from NCSU Libraries

• How to generate APA-style citations from Google Scholar
• APA quirks & common mistakes
• Hanging indent in Word
• Hanging indent in Google Docs

Step 1. Click on the quotation mark under a citation

Step 2. Select and copy the text next to APA

Step 3. EDIT!

Look for things like capitalization, punctuation, and missing information.

Sentence case

• Capitalize only the first letter at the beginning of a title:
  • Three ways to combat climate change through the courts. (CORRECT) 
  • Three Ways to Combat Climate Change Through the Courts. (INCORRECT)
• Capitalize the first letter after any punctuation in a title:
  • Cities and climate change: Urban sustainability and global environmental governance (CORRECT) 
  • Cities and climate change: urban sustainability and global environmental governance (INCORRECT)
• Proper nouns are also capitalized in titles:
  • Economic mobility and the rise of the Latin American middle class (CORRECT)
  • Economic mobility and the rise of the latin american middle class (INCORRECT)

"Retrieved from" dates

• Generally you do not need to list the date when you accessed a website:
  • Retrieved from https://thewalrus.ca/a-future-without-sharks/ (CORRECT) vs.
  • Retrieved November 8, 2018 from https://thewalrus.ca/a-future-without-sharks/ (INCORRECT)
• Only list the date when the content is likely to change or the URL may not be stable (like on a wiki or a PDF from an NGO)
  • Retrieved November 8, 2018 from http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Peru/Arahuay (CORRECT)
  • Retrieved November 8, 2018 from http://www.tbpa.net/docs/71_Cordillera_del_condor.pdf (CORRECT)

Step 1: Select your text

Step 2: Format > Paragraph 

Step 3: Choose "Hanging" from the Special dropdown box & click OK

Step 1: Select your text

Step 2: Format > Align & indent > Indentation options...

Step 3: Choose "Hanging" under Special dropdown and click OK