111 Citing Another Person’s Ideas
You will cite another person’s ideas to give credit to their work and to clarify what is their work and what is yours. Within a paragraph, you only have to cite the authors once, IF it is clear that the other sentences are still being paraphrased (APA, 2000). However, it has to be clear when a sentence is paraphrased and when a sentence is your own original idea. See Film Clip 9.3 about citing another person’s ideas. APA (2020) uses the author-date citation system. Each source that you cite must be in the reference list and each source in the reference list must be in the text of your paper (APA, 2020).
Here’s a correctly cited excerpt using APA (2020):
Hart and Lu-Ann (2019) argued that many students do not cite appropriately. They further stated that students often fail to indicate where a reference begins and ends. In my experience, I have found that students do not reference enough. Many students lose grades because of poor citations, and this is often because they do not understand the nuances of APA citation (Hart & Lu-Ann, 2019).
As you will note in the example above, an ampersand (&) is used within parenthesis between authors’ names and the word “and” is used between authors’ names with the textual content that is not in parentheses (APA, 2020).
Film Clip 9.3: Citing another person’s ideas [2:01]
In-text citations
An in-text citation is a citation placed in parentheses within the text of your paper. You can do this by including a short quotation from the original text within your work, or a paraphrase of the ideas, followed by the author and year of publication. For example:
Despite the media’s insistence that it is colour-blind, Serena is most often portrayed as a symbol of Black pride and heritage (Schultz, 2005).
Another option is to begin the sentence with a signal phrase that includes the author’s last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses. When doing it this way, make sure that you place the year in parentheses right after the author’s name:
According to Schultz (2005), despite the media’s insistence that it is colour-blind, Serena is most often portrayed as a symbol of Black pride and heritage.
If you are including multiple references within parentheses, list them in alphabetical order, and if by the same author, list in chronological order (APA, 2020). For example:
It has been found that hand hygiene with handgel is the best measure for infection prevention (Barjarow, 2017a, 2019b; Matilada & Barsowitz, 2018).
When including direct quotations, you must add page numbers. For example:
According to Schultz (2005), “In the overwhelmingly White world of professional tennis, Serena Williams and her older sister Venus are frequently represented in the tradition of Black pride and heritage” (p. 339).
You should carefully consider how to integrate and introduce quotations. See Table 9.2 on points to consider when using direct quotations as per APA (2020). As per APA: use quotation marks around phrases that are direct quotes and under 40 words; and use a block format (indented 0.5 inch) with no quotation marks for phrases that are direct quotes and greater than 40 words.
Table 9.2: Points to consider when using direct quotations
| Suggestion | Nursing examples |
|---|---|
|
Never use a stand-alone quotation: always integrate the quoted material into your own sentence. |
Abbasi and Umrani (2018) advocated for gender inclusive language. They argued, for instance, that “typical plural pronouns such as ‘they’ can be used as singular and plural pronouns” (p. 7). |
|
Use ellipses […] if you need to omit a word or phrase. This shows your reader that you have critically and thoroughly evaluated the quotation and have chosen to include only the most important and relevant information. Use [. …] when you are removing a section that would end in a period. |
“Nurses who practice self-care … have reduced absenteeism” (Abraham & Mark, 2019, p. 24). Liu, Spenelli, and Reyes (2018) conducted a “narrative study about the effects of meditation on clients with post-traumatic stress. … meditation decreases feelings of emotional distress and flashbacks” (p. 22). |
|
Use brackets [ ] if you need to replace a word or phrase or if you need to change the verb tense. |
As noted by Madulla (2020), “training in ergonomics decrease[s] musculoskeletal injuries” (p. 46). |
|
Use [sic] after something in the quotation that is grammatically incorrect or spelled incorrectly. This shows your reader that the mistake is in the original, not your writing. |
The authors found that “prolonged grief can led [sic] to increased feelings of anxiety” (Pathack, 2020, p. 98). |
|
Use double quotation marks [“ ”] when quoting and use single quotation marks [‘ ’] when you include a quotation within a quotation. |
One participant remarked “nurses often told me to ‘breathe slowly and deeply’ when my fear became too much” (Rodriguez & Balakrishnan, 2019, p. 2). |
|
When citing an author in parentheses, you always need to include the authors’ last names and year. However, if you are citing the authors as part of your text (i.e., not in parentheses) and within the same paragraph, then you generally only need to note the publication year the first time – unless it could be confused with another citation with similar names. If you note this author in a separate paragraph, you should indicate the year again. |
Nurse educators consistently encourage students to complete readings ahead of time so that they can focus on skill acquisition in lab. It has been found that students who completed readings prior to laboratory practice were better prepared to practice nursing skills (Cranley, 2019). Specifically, Cranley found that students were able to focus on skill application in lab as opposed to reading the content. It was also noted that these students did better in the course overall (Cranley, 2019). |
Activities: Check Your Understanding
Attribution statement
The section on in-text citations was adapted, with editorial changes, from:
Write Here, Right Now by Dr. Paul Chafe, Aaron Tucker with chapters from Dr. Kari Maaren, Dr. Martha Adante, Val Lem, Trina Grover and Kelly Dermody, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Download this book for free at: https://pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca/writehere/
The content in the first column of Table 9.2 was adapted and reformulated into a table, with editorial changes, from:
Writing for Success 1st Canadian Edition by Tara Horkoff, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Download for free at: https://opentextbc.ca/writingforsuccess/
