Several academic writers struggle to cope with the APA style of referencing and citations. Citations are an important aspect of any academic manuscript. They help you build and support your argument regarding your hypothesis. It also informs your audience about the facts or literature that encourage you to think, act, and analyze in a certain manner. Therefore, let us understand if and when we should use citations. Quotations: When stating the direct words of an author, we need to cite the source. Altman (2008) defined assumptions as “statements regarding a thing’s nature that can’t be observed or tested.” (p. 12). Paraphrases: When restating the meaning of another author’s work using new structure and words, we need to cite. Assumptions are statements about the nature of things, which cannot be verified through observations or tests (Altman, 2008). Concepts: When including a concept (an abstract/generic idea or generalized term) of another author, we need to cite. The American small business administration (2009) characterized small businesses as autonomous firms that included less than 500 employees. Conclusions: A conclusion represents your thoughts, opinions, and insights regarding a particular topic. Conclusions differ from facts. Facts are common knowledge and do not require citations; however, conclusions do need citations. Conclusion: The Indian independence stemmed from intolerable injustice inflicted by the British (Sharma, 1999). Fact: The Royal Indian Navy mutiny (the Bombay Mutiny) included a complete strike and subsequent mutiny undertaken by the Indian sailors of the Royal Indian Navy on 18 February 1946. Statistics: When using statistical data form another study, we must use citations because statistical data represent is considered the intellectual property of the author. Now that we have a fair bit of knowledge about when to cite, let us talk about how to cite. The following information is what will help you build your citations: Name of the author Date of publishing Useful information that you have included in your work Location Chandra (2010) stated, “Medicine should focus on a holistic approach” (p. 3). OR Pain measurements must be reliable, valid, and easily understood (Roy, 1999, p. 121). OTHER EXAMPLES Quoted text in paragraphs: Shinde (2009) suggested that “therapists have validated that parental negativity causes depression among adults” (p. 541), which leads to high suicide rates. Website without page numbers: Kumar (2008) revealed that “perceived pain among patients with chronic pain strongly correlated with their mental health and less with their physical condition” (Discussion section, para 1). Paraphrase: Pain measurements require to be (a) reliable, (b) valid, and (c) easily understood (Roy, 1999, p. 121). Secondary source: Suri (as cited in Biswas, 2010) revealed that cardiovascular diseases are more prevalent among chronic depressive patients. The APA recommends scarce citations of secondary sources. Primary sources are most preferable. The final and most important rule of APA citations is that all citations in the text must be included in the end-list references, without fail. For Microsoft Word users, the find and replace function can assist you in conducting a congruence check for your references/citations.
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