Skip to Main Content
a hand pointing at a tablet, with coffee cups nearby

Citations in Text

About Dates, Page, and Paragraph Numbers

About Dates

Include only the year for citations, with the exception of personal communications. If no date is available, use the abbreviation n.d. meaning "no date" with no spacing between the periods.

Parenthetical Citation Example

(Kim, n.d., p. 43)

Narrative Citation Example

Kim (n.d.) … (p. 43)

About Page and Paragraph Numbers

The writer can include a page or paragraph number in the citation for paraphrased material even though it is not required. According to the 7th edition manual, “It is possible to cite a specific part of a source whether you are paraphrasing or directly quoting” (American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 264). Writing Services encourages students to include this information when possible because it is typically helpful for the reader.

Page and Paragraph Numbers Table
Citation Source Location Parenthetical Narrative
One page
*use p. #
(Murray, 2014, p. 6) Murray (2014)…(p. 6)
Information spanning more than one page (continuous pages)
*use pp. #-#
(Anderson, 2014, pp. 6-7) Anderson (2014)… (pp. 6-7)
Information spanning more than one page (discontinuous pages) (Reynolds, 2019, pp. 35, 40) Reynolds (2019) ... (pp. 35, 40)
A document without page numbers (ie. a website)
*use para. #
(Hendry, 2013, para. 6) Hendry (2013)… (para. 6)
A document without page numbers & information spanning more than one paragraph
*use paras. #-#
(VanDoormal, 2014, paras. 5-6) VanDoormal (2014)… (paras. 5-6)
A document without page numbers & information under headings (useful for long web documents)
*use the heading and para. #
(Bauman, 2014, Symptoms section, para. 3) Bauman (2014) … (Symptoms section, para. 3)
PowerPoint slides
*use the slide #
(Vermeyden, 2020, slide 4) Vermeyden (2020)… (slide 4)
Citing Video (i.e. YouTube)
*use the timestamp
(Conestoga College, 2019, 1:25)

Conestoga College (2019)… (1:25)

Reference

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).