In-text Citations

There are three basic parts to any in-text citation: the author's name, the date of publication, and the page numbers.

What do in-text citations look like?

This table demonstrates how to create an in-text citation depending on how many authors are in your reference:
How many authors:	What a parenthetical citation looks like:	What a narrative citation looks like:
One author	(Forbes, 2020)	Forbes (2020) stated...
Two authors	(Bennet & Miller, 2019)	Bennet and Miller (2019) concluded that...
Three + authors	(Jones et al., 2020)	Jones et al. (2020) shared two different...
A group or organization as an author	(East Carolina University, 2020)	East Carolina University (2020) found...

Let's look at these paraphrased examples if they were written in text:

An example with 1 author:

Parenthetical citation: Following American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines will help you to cultivate your own unique academic voice as an expert in your field (Forbes, 2020).

Narrative citation: Forbes (2020) shared that by following American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines, students would learn to find their own voice as experts in the field of nursing.

An example with 2 authors:

Parenthetical citation: Research on the use of progressive muscle relaxation for stress reduction has demonstrated the efficacy of the method (Bennett & Miller, 2019).

Narrative citation: As shared by Bennett and Miller (2019), research on the use of progressive muscle relaxation for stress reduction has demonstrated the efficacy of the method.

An example with 3 authors:

Parenthetical citation: Guided imagery has also been shown to reduce stress, length of hospital stay, and symptoms related to medical and psychological conditions (Jones et al., 2020).

Narrative citation: Jones et al. (2020) shared that guided imagery has also been shown to reduce stress, length of hospital stay, and symptoms related to medical and psychological conditions.

An example with a group/corporate author:

Parenthetical citation: Dr. Philip G. Rogers, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, was recently elected as the newest chancellor of the university (East Carolina University, 2020).

Narrative citation: Recently shared on the East Carolina University (2020) website, Dr. Philip G. Rogers, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, was elected as the newest chancellor.

There are several rules of thumb you can follow to make sure that you are citing your paper correctly in APA 7 format.

Think of your paper broken up into paragraphs. When you start a paragraph, the first time you add a sentence that has been paraphrased from a reference -> that's when you need to add an in-text citation.
Continue writing your paragraph, you do NOT need to add another in-text citation until:
1. You are paraphrasing from a NEW source, which means you need to cite NEW information OR
2. You need to cite a DIRECT quote, which includes a page number, paragraph number or Section title.
Important to remember: You DO NOT need to add an in-text citation after EVERY sentence of your paragraph.
Read and ask: Will the reader understand where I got my information?