Skip to Main Content

APA

Quoting/Paraphrasing/Summarizing

Quoting. Use it when you absolutely need it.  

Paraphrasing.  You rewrite what you read in your own words. 

Summarizing. This is a condensed version of what you read.  You write in your own words. 

REMEMBER: PARAPHRASING IS BETTER THAN QUOTING

Quoting

  • The quotation must match the original and must be enclosed in “ “. Ex.: “people have the right to vote”
  • Always include: (last name, date, page #)
  • For a single page use: p.  Ex.: (Scott, 2019, p. 16)
  • For multiple pages use: pp. Ex.: (Scott, 2019, pp. 34-35)
  • If you are omitting material- use an ellipsis, three periods. Ex.: “check the websites…to consider the right use of information” (Scott, 2019, p. 16)
  • If you are inserting material- use [ ]. Sometimes you need to add a word to make the quotation clear. Ex.: “the [teenagers] are more prone to incidents” (Scott, 2019, p. 16)
  • If there is no page number, provide a paragraph number. You will need to count the paragraphs. Use: para. Ex.: (Scott, 2019, para. 16)

Quoting/Paraphrasing from a Video

  • You must include the time where the information can be found. Time needs to be written in hour, minutes, seconds using this format:
  • Hours/minutes/seconds H:MM:SS
  • Minutes/seconds MM:SS 
  • For seconds only use this format 0:30

In-text the different formats will look like: (BeRed, 2022, 2:15:30) or (BeRed, 2022, 45:10) or (BeRed, 2022, 0:30)