Task 1 – Citing in different ways

In academic writing, we have to use different sources to support our argument and there are different ways to do so. The box below presents details of a source. We are going to show you different ways to use this source:

 

Example 1 – Paraphrasing:
If you just want to use the idea of this source, you will need to paraphrase

 

We use the phrase, “according to” to show that the following claim is a paraphrase of a source. The highlighted part is the in-text citation.

Example 2 – quoting a sentence / paragraph:
If you find the original words in the source useful, you may quote the entire sentence or even the entire paragraph.

Quoting a sentence / phrase:

 

A large amount of text (more than 40 words) is called a ‘block quote’

The highlighted part is the in-text citation. We should indent the block quote five spaces or half an inch.

In short, there are 2 types of citation: a paraphrase and a quotation. For a quotation, we can quote a sentence or quote paragraph, depending on our needs. However, we cite them differently.

Task 1

Try to complete the following table by dragging and dropping the excerpts below:

 

Task 2 - Application

Imagine that you are working on an essay on the topic of ‘Should smoking be banned in all hospitality venues?’ You would like to use the article below in your essay,

Within this paper, you found that ONLY a point made in paragraph 1 of the discussion section may help you.

Q2. Now, try to complete the citation for your paper: (You may need to visit the original paper for more information)

Q3. You wish to use the highlighted sentence in your essay. Please complete the in-text citation that follows:

 

Task 3 - More about in-text citations

The in-text citations covered so far are appropriate for books, ebooks, journal articles and websites. Now look how to cite the following sources:

a. Sources with no author: (“title”, year)
“Title” refers to the title of the source (i.e. the title of the web page). Double quotation marks should be used to indicate that it is a title, not an author.

e.g. (“How to make friends,” 2012)

b. Sources with no publication year: (author, n.d.)
If the publication year is not available, we simply use “n.d.” to replace the publication year.

e.g. (Chan, n.d.)

c. Sources with no author and no publication year: (“title,” n.d.)
We just combine the above two ways of citing a source to indicate that there is no author and no publication year.

e.g. (“The latest news,” n.d.)

d. Citing newspaper articles
For news article, if you can find the name of the writer, you can use the last name of the writer as usual. If you cannot find the name of the writer, use the first few words of the title instead.

For publication year, you need to use the exact date of the newspaper article to replace the publication year (e.g. 10 August 2012)

With writer:   (Jane, 30 May 2012)
No writer:       (“200 arrested because of smuggling”, 12 June 2012)

Activity 3 - Short Question
How would you present the in-text citation for the following sources? Type your answers in the spaces provided.

 

Congratulations on completing this package! You should now be more familiar with APA conventions for in-text citations. Your next step is to learn how to prepare a reference list.