How to create a bibliography in APA Style and how to ‘in-text’ reference

Why do we reference our work?

When you research a topic, you discover the ideas of other people and use them in your task. By referencing, you are showing the marker how much research you have done and who you have relied on for your answers. This gives your work extra credibility. If you don’t reference your sources, then you are plagiarising, which means that you are taking other people’s ideas as your own.

How to create a bibliography

A bibliography is a list of resources that you have used to create your task. A citation is the way you list that resource in your bibliography. In primary school, your bibliography was probably a list of websites. In high school, this will not be enough. At RGHS, we ask that your bibliographies use the APA style of referencing.

If you want to know what a bibliography should look like, there is a sample further down and a link to another example.

There are two ways to create an APA style citation.

1. If you are citing a resource found in a database (eresource), then the citation will be automatically provided.

2. If you are citing a book or a webpage found via a google search, then you need to create your own citation using the free citation generator Citethisforme. When you go to this site, choose APA and on the next page, choose your source type, which most of the time will be a website. Insert your web address into the generator and follow directions and keep scrolling until it creates your citation.

A good alternative citation creator is citationmachine. There are others.

Tip: As you research, keep a list of all the sources that you intend to cite. This is much easier than trying to remember them later.

Your bibliography should be in alphabetical order.

Sample APA Bibliography - note it is in alphabetical order

Cite This For Me. (2014). Cite This For Me: Automatic bibliography generator. [online] Available at: https://www.citethisforme.com/cite/website/autocite

Clerehan, Rosemary T. (2014). Why do we reference. [online] Monash.edu.au. Available at: http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/reference/index.xml

Newcastle.edu.au. (2014). Building A Strong Foundation For University Life | Referencing - What Is Referencing?. [online] Available at: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/library/foundation-portal/referencing-whatis.html

Link to sample APA bibliography

In-text citations

In-text citations are more difficult to understand and it might be later in junior school before you are asked to include them. However, you could WOW your teacher by including them in your next task.

Just as the term implies, you include an in-text citation in the text of your work. When you refer to a source in the body of your work, you add an in-text citation. This is done so the reader knows where to find that particular idea or quote.

All that is required for in-text citing is a shortened version of the citation already in your bibliography.

Example: Using the Clerehan citation above, you would write (Clerehan, 2014) in your text next to the quote or idea. This will inform the reader which source you are referring to.

It would look something like this: A researcher in the linguistics field has developed a training program designed to improve native speakers' ability to understand accented speech (Clerehan, 2014).

The reader now knows that this fact was taken from the Clerehan source in your bibliography.

For more in-depth information on how to in-text, go to this site.