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Master of Digital Media (MDM)

Apa citation Style

Citing with APA 

Like most citation styles, APA citation style is composed of two parts:

  • In-text citation: identify within the text what ideas or facts have been paraphrased or quoted from another source
  • bibliography: a list of all the cited sources, alphabetical by author's last name

Author-date method

APA uses the Author-date method for in-text citation. The author’s last name and date of resource, in brackets, are entered in the sentence using natural language Past or present perfect. EX:

  • “Stevens (2014) noted...”
  • “Farooqui (2016) has argued...”

If quoting directly, also include the page number EX:

  • As Wong (1999) pointed out, “APA in-text citation is simple” (p. 276).
  • The page number not required when paraphrasing

All cited sources should be in your reference list!

Bibliography 

Your bibliography will contain a  list of all the sources you cited within your paper, arranged alphabetically by author's last name. The format changes slightly based on the format:

  • Books:
    • Author, A.B. (YYYY). Title of work: Subtitle of work. Location: Publisher Schreiber, D., & Dollenmayer, D. B. (2014).
    • EX: Susan Sontag: A biography. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press
  • Articles with DOI:
    • Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number, page range. doi:0000000/000000000000 Andrews, L. (2003).
    • EX: Ansel adams. History of Photography, 27(1), 89-90. doi:10.1080/03087298.2003.10443216
  • Articles, no DOI:
    • Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number. Retrieved from http://www.journalhomepage.com/full/url/
    • EX: Selinger, S. L. (2012). Unreliable narrations of three ansel adams photographs. Wallace Stevens Journal, 36(1), 138-138. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.lib.torontomu.ca/article/476713

NB: including "retrieved from" before the URL of the sources is no longer required in APA 7 ed.

 


 

Citing Social Media Sources

Citing Social Media

All sources that you quote, reference, or analyze must be cited in your text. This can include text from books and journal articles, but also photographs, videos, and social media posts. Here is a quick guide on how to cite a social media post using APA 7:

  •  Include the following in your reference:
    • who (name and Instagram username)
    • when (date posted)
    •  what (the caption, highlight title, or profile page title- first 20 words
  • where (URL)

Example social media citation:

 

Instagram post from the Black Lives Matter account with indicators of where to find information needed for citation.

For a full review of citing social media see Section 10.15 of the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition.