How to reference a quote in apa format

Quoted material should be reproduced word-for-word. Always include the author's last name, year of publication, and page number(s). Use 'p.' for a single page number (Example: p. 15) and 'pp.' for multiple page numbers (Example: pp. 125-126). If citing an online source without page numbers, cite the paragraph number (Example: para. 4).   

Author Before Quotation With Page Numbers 

Author (Year) "Quote" (p. #).

Single Author: Schwartz (2013) noted, "The term 'cloud' comes from the traditional representation of the Internet in network diagrams" (p. 1626).

Two Authors: Fontana and Montalbano (2008) found that “the market for these low-cost machines is being driven by inexpensive bandwidth; the growth of services and cloud computing; and cloud-based processing, storage, management and associated IT services” (p. 12).

Three or more Authors: Lyoob, Rossetti, and Chen (2013) stated, "Every cloud solution provider has a different set of offerings and a different pricing model" (p. 35). 

Author Before Quotation Without Page Numbers

Author (Year) "Quote" (para. paragraph #).

Single Author: Griffith (2013) stated, "In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive" (para. 2).

Two Authors: Rajan and McEvoy (2012) indicated that "cloud storage has a distinct advantage in that your files exist in a place and not on a device" (para. 8).

Three or more Authors: Denton, Lee, and Chavez (2013) highlighted, "cloud based computing requires one to be connected to the Internet" (para. 12).

Author After Quotation With Page Numbers 

When citing multiple authors after a quotation the ampersand symbol '&' is used instead of the word 'and'.

"Quote" (Author, Year, p. #)

Single Author: "The term 'cloud' comes from the traditional representation of the Internet in network diagrams" (Schwartz, 2013, p. 1626).

Two Authors: "The market for these low-cost machines is being driven by inexpensive bandwidth; the growth of services and cloud computing; and cloud-based processing, storage, management, and associated IT services” (Fontana & Montalbano, 2008, p. 12).

Three or More Authors: "Every cloud solution provider has a different set of offerings and a different pricing model" (lyoob, Rossetti, & Chen, 2013, p. 35).

**Note: In the above in-text citation, one of the authors’ last names is not capitalized. As a general rule, APA requires proper nouns to be capitalized. With author names, however, your goal is to write the name as the author him- or herself has presented it in scholarly work. Thus, if the name starts with a lowercase letter in the source you are citing, as is the case above with the name ‘lyoob,’ keep it lowercase. The exceptions to this are if the name 1) begins a sentence or 2) is the first word after a colon when what follows the colon is an independent clause.

Author After Quotation Without Page Numbers

When citing multiple authors after a quotation the ampersand symbol '&' is used instead of the word 'and'.

"Quote" (Author, Year, para. paragraph #).

Single Author: "In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive" (Griffith, 2013, para. 2).

Two Authors: "Cloud storage has a distinct advantage in that your files exist in a place and not on a device" (Rajan & McEvoy, 2012, para. 8).

Three or more Authors: "Cloud based computing requires one to be connected to the Internet" (Denton, Lee, & Chavez, 2013, para. 12). 

In-text references should immediately follow the title, word, or phrase to which they are directly relevant, rather than appearing at the end of long clauses or sentences. In-text references should always precede punctuation marks. Below are examples of using in-text citation.

Author's name in parentheses:

One study found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic (Gass & Varonis, 1984).

Author's name part of narrative:

Gass and Varonis (1984) found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic.

Group as author:

First citation:(American Psychological Association [APA], 2015)
Subsequent citation: (APA, 2015)

Multiple works: (separate each work with semi-colons)

Research shows that listening to a particular accent improves comprehension of accented speech in general (Gass & Varonis, 1984; Krech Thomas, 2004).

Direct quote: (include page number)

One study found that “the listener's familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 85).

Gass and Varonis (1984) found that “the listener’s familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (p. 85).

Note: For direct quotations of more than 40 words, display the quote as an indented block of text without quotation marks and include the authors’ names, year, and page number in parentheses at the end of the quote. For example:

This suggests that familiarity with nonnative speech in general, although it is clearly not as important a variable as topic familiarity, may indeed have some effect. That is, prior experience with nonnative speech, such as that gained by listening to the reading, facilitates comprehension. (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 77)

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