Just like the other major styles (e.g. Chicago, MLA, Harvard) APA style is not just a guide or style of referencing, but a style guide for academic writing, formating, and many other details associated with technical or academic writing styles. However, referencing and citation are two major aspects of the style.
If your teacher asks you to use an "author/date" system, APA is one of the styles you can choose.
Just to recap on useful terms:
References build up to form a reference list or bibliography.
Don't forget, you need to cite and reference a source of information if you quote the source in your text.
However, many people forget that you also need to cite and reference a source if you paraphrase the source, or just refer to a specific source of information in your writing.
Styles of academic writing/referencing are updated from time to time, and the latest version of the APA style is the 6th edition.
You will need to read the information on both the following tabs to complete your referencing using APA style.
APA is an acronym, and stands for American Psychological Association.
Studyweb has a good page of information about how and when to cite and reference.
In APA style, the preferred term is Reference List.
IB requires you to reference all the sources you use in the Reference List. You should not include items you have not used in your essay.
Here is a sample paper provided by the APA which has been fully annotated to explain all the citation elements. Well worth looking at before you start.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by Yes, you can use any number of citation tools, e.g., Citefast.
There is a LibGuide about various bibliographic referencing tools -- see here.
In addition, MacWord has a citation/reference option, in which you can choose APA as your reference style.
If you use an online citation generator, you need to check the accuracy of the work, so it is worth knowing how APA style works.
The IB says that you (and your teacher) can choose a major style of referencing.
Once you have chosen a style, you need to be consistent in its use.
This means that in a piece of work, e.g. Extended Essay, TOK essay or IA, you need to stick with one style. In addition, you need to follow the style through. For example, if you use footnotes and have opted to use APA, you're not being consistent in your use of APA, as APA requires you to follow an in-text system where the author and date of the source of information you use is given in parenthesis or brackets in the text - for example (Singh, 2003) or (Taylor, 1999).
Go to the tab "APA posters" to see how to reference images, articles, websites and books.
This guide was created and maintained by Dr. Anthony Tilke, 2013-2015. Updates have been maintained by Kurt Wittig, 2015-2016.
