For in-text citations, you need the: 1) Author, 2) Year of Publication (if no year, use n.d.), and 3) Page # (need when quoting. If no page #, use para. #)
Examples:
According to Jones (2010), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.
OR
APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 2010).
Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke (2012) as "symbol-using animals" (p. 18).
OR
Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke, 2012, p. 18).
Select an exception to expand and view the options for handling it.
Use title instead. If the title is too long, use the first 1-3 words of the title.
Example: If the title is "Unplug, Don't Drug"
More than 50% of children have a television in their bedrooms ("Unplug", 2011).
OR
An online New York Times article, "Unplug" (2011), noted that an increasing "number of restaurants, cars, and even physicians' waiting rooms have a television on all day" (para. 2).
In a 2001 survey of managers, more than three-quarters of the responding companies monitored their employees' "misuse or personal use of office telecommunications equipment" (American Management Associations, n.d., Conclusion section, para. 3).
OR
According to a 2001 survey of managers by the American Management Association (n.d.), more than three-quarters of companies monitor their employees' use of the Web.
Mention all authors throughout.
Kizza and Ssanyu (2009) explained that "employee monitoring is a dependable, capable, and very affordable process of recording all employee activities at work" (p. 2).
OR
Electronic surveillance of employee is a "dependable, capable, and very affordable process" (Kizza & Ssanyu, 2009, p. 2).
Use the first author's last name followed by et al.
Three critical factors for healthy child development are movement, touch, and connection to other humans (Insel et al., 2009).
If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the parentheses.
Johnson argued that... (as cited in Smith, 2012).