APA @ Conestoga

About Authors

Authors with Only a First and Last Name

If the author's name is Jane Doe,

• Jane is the first name and
• Doe is the last name.

Use the last name in citations.

Parenthetical Citation Example

Narrative Citation Example

Authors With Multiple Names

If the author's name is John Marc Smith, assume that

• John is the first name,
• Marc is the middle name, and
• Smith is the last name.

Use the last name in citations.

Parenthetical Citation Example

Narrative Citation Example

Authors with Two Last Names

Write the author’s name exactly as it appears on the published work, including hyphenated last names and two-part last names.

If the author's name is Margaret Mclean Heitkemper,

• Margaret is the first name,
• Heitkemper McLean are the last names.

Use only the last name in citations.

Parenthetical Citation Example

Narrative Citation Example

Different Authors, Same Last Name, Different First Initial

If there are two authors with the same last name but different first initials, include the first initial followed by a period before the last name in the citation.

Parenthetical Citation Example

Narrative Citation Example

Different Authors, Same Last Name, Same First Initial

If there are two authors with the same last name and the same first initial, the first name of the author should be included in the citation – even if the years of publication are different.

Include the first name followed by the last name.

Parenthetical Citation Example

Narrative Citation Example

Same Author and Same Year of Publication

If there are two different sources by the same author in the same year, put the sources in alphabetical order and add a lower-case letter after the year (this will correspond with the matching reference).

Parenthetical Citation Example

Narrative Citation Example

Group Author

If the name of an individual author isn't present, use the group author. The group author is an organization (such as a government agency, corporation, or association) that publishes a work instead of individual authors. When citing a group author, use the full name of the organization in the author position in both the reference list and in-text citations. If a group name has a common abbreviation, you can introduce it on the first citation in the text and use the abbreviation for subsequent citations.

Parenthetical Citation Example

Narrative Citation Example