Writing a 2 page writing sample in APA style. The paper leads with a quote I found online. How do I cite it?

Answer 1

The second link below shows how to quote different kinds of web addresses/links.

If you're still having problems with figuring it out, E-mail your professor about it and ask him/her what the correct way to cite the website would be.

1. World Wide Web site


The Publication Manual notes that "the vast majority of Internet sources cited in APA journals are those that are accessed via the Web" (p. 269). It instructs authors using and citing Web sources to observe the following guidelines:

Where possible and relevant, provide URL references to specific documents rather than home or menu pages.
Provide URLs that work.
If your paper will be available online as an updateable hypertext essay, make a point of testing the URLs in your references regularly. Consider replacing (with a reference to a later version) or simply dropping any sources whose original URLs no longer work.

To cite an entire Web site (but not a specific document on the site), simply give the site's URL in the text:

Rainbow MOO is a virtual space designed especially for teachers and their elementary-school students (http://it.uwp.edu/rainbow).
To document a specific file, provide as much as possible of the following information:


Author's name (if available)
Date of publication or update or date of retrieval, in parentheses
Title or description of document
Title of complete work (if relevant), in italics or underlined
Other relevant information (volume number, page numbers, etc.)
Retrieval date statement
URL
For more specific guidance, see the various sample situations in this section.

Book

An online book may be the electronic text of part or all of a printed book, or a book-length document available only on the Internet.

Bryant, P. (1999). Biodiversity and Conservation Retrieved October 4, 1999, from http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/Titlpage.htm
Article in an electronic journal (ejournal)

Fine, M., & Kurdek, L. A. (1993). Reflections on determining authorship credit and authorship order on faculty-student collaborations. American Psychologist, 48, 1141-1147. Retrieved June 7, 1999, from http://www.apa.org/journals/amp/kurdek.html
Abstract

Isaac. J. D., Sansone, C., & Smith, J. L. (1999, May). Other people as a source of interest in an activity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 239-265. Abstract retrieved June 7, 1999, from IDEAL database site http://www.europe.idealibrary.com
Article in an electronic magazine (ezine)

Adler, J. (1999, May 17). Ghost of Everest. Newsweek. Retrieved May 19, 1999, from http://newsweek.com/nw-srv/issue/20_99a/printed/int/socu/so0120_1.htm

Box 6.3
Breaking URLs in APA style

The Publication Manual (p. 271) gives the following options for breaking URLs:

After a slash
Before a period
These instructions differ slightly from the ones in 1d-2 of this book. We suggest that, for papers written in APA style, you follow the APA's recommendations.



Newspaper article

Azar, B., & Martin, S. (1999, October). APA's Council of Representatives endorses new standards for testing, high school psychology. APA Monitor. Retrieved October 7, 1999, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct99/in1.html
Review

Parfit, M. (1997, December 7). Breathless. [Review of the book The climb: Tragic ambitions on Everest]. New York Times on the Web. Retrieved October 7, 1999, from http://search.nytimes.com/books/97/12/07/reviews/971207.07parfitt.html
Letter to the editor

Gray, J. (1999, May 7). Pesticides linger in land and air—and in our bodies [Letter to the editor]. Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved October 7, 1999, from http://www.kentuckyconnect.com/heraldleader/news/050799/lettersdocs/507letters.htm
Government publication

Bush, G. (1989, April 12). Principles of ethical conduct for government officers and employees. Exec. Order No. 12674. Pt. 1. Retrieved November 18, 1997, from http://www.usoge.gov/pages/laws_regs_fedreg_stats/lrfs_files/exeorders/eo12674.pdf
2. Material from a subscription service


To document an article or other material accessed through a library or institutional subscription service such as EBSCOhost or Lexis-Nexis, provide

Publication information for the source
Retrieval statement, including the name of the specific database used (do not include the URL or name of the subscription service)

Kowalski, R. M. (2002). Whining, griping, and complaining: Positivity in the negativity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58, 1023-1035. Retrieved November 7, 2002, from Academic Search Premier Database.
3. Email message


The Publication Manual recommends that email1 messages from individuals be cited as personal communications (p. 214), and therefore not be included in the References. Here is how an in-text parenthetical reference to a personal email message might look.


Bryan Burgin (personal communication, November 18, 1998) notified me that my proposal had been accepted.
In general, the APA discourages the inclusion in the References of communications that are not archived anywhere and therefore cannot be retrieved for verification. The Publication Manual (p. 214) cautions that "computer networks (including the Internet) currently provide a casual forum for communicating, and what you cite should have scholarly relevance."

Always evaluate the validity of your source, particularly if you do not personally know the author of an email message (See 4c-3 and 4d).

4. Web discussion forum posting


To document a posting to a Web discussion forum, provide the following information:

Author's name
Date of posting, in parentheses
Title of posting
Posting statement

Abeles, T. (1999, May 21). Technology and the future of higher education. Formal discussion initiation. Message posted to http://ifets.gmd.de/past_archives/archiv_150499_250899/0107.html

Marcy, B. (1999, April 3). Think they'll find any evidence of Mallory & Irvine? Message posted to http://everest.mountainzone.com/99/forum
5. Listserv message


To document a listserv message, provide the following information:

Author's name
Date of posting, in parentheses
Subject line of posting
Posting and archival statement

Robertson, David M. (2001, June 24). Re: Lebanese cuisine books (1961, 1966) [June 2001, week 4, Msg. 18.2]. Message posted to the American Dialect Society's ADS-L electronic mailing list, archived at http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/ads-l.html
Note that the Publication Manual recommends that the term electronic mailing list be used instead of listserv.

6. Newsgroup message

To document information posted in a newsgroup discussion, provide the following information:

Author's name (or screen name, if real name is unknown)
Date of posting, in parentheses
Subject line
Posting statement

Brett. (1999, June 6). Experiments proving the collective unconscious. Message posted to news://alt.psychology.jung

7. Real-time communication


To document a real-time communication, such as those posted in MOOs, MUDs, and IRCs, provide the following information:

Name of speaker(s) (if known), or name of site
Date of event, in parentheses
Title of event (if relevant)
Type of communication (e.g., group discussion, personal interview), if not indicated elsewhere in entry
Retrieval statement

Fox, R. (1999, February 2). ENG 301 Class MOO: Concept mapping for Web project. Retrieved February 3, 1999, from http://moo.du.org:8000

Sowers, H., Fields, M., & Gurney, J. (1999, May 29). Online collaborative conference. Retrieved May 29, 1999, from LinguaMOO: telnet://lingua.utdallas.edu:8888
8. Telnet, FTP and gopher sites


The most common use of telnet is for participation in real-time communication (see 6b-6). Although the use of telnet for document retrieval has declined dramatically with increased Web access to texts, numerous archived documents are available only by telnet. To document a telnet site or a file available via telnet, provide the following information:

Name of author or agency
Date of publication, in parentheses
Title of document
Retrieval statement, including name of database
Telnet address with directions for accessing document

Environmental Protection Agency. (1990). About the Clean Air Act (CAA) database. Retrieved June 2, 1999, from FedWorld Information Network: telnet fedworld.gov go Regulatory Agencies
FTP site

To document a file available for downloading via file transfer protocol, provide the following information:

Name of author or file
Date of publication, in parentheses
Size of document (if relevant)
Title of document
Retrieval statement
Complete FTP address

everest2.gif. (1993, April 4). 535K. Image of Mt. Everest. Retrieved June 3, 1999, from ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/images/ views/sorted.by.type/Mountains/everest2.gif

Mathews, J. (1992). Preface. In Numerical methods for mathematics, science, and engineering. Retrieved June 8, 1999, from ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/netlib/textbook/index.html

Answer 2

The same as you would cite a quote from a book, but use the URL instead of the title, author, page. I don't think _Strunk & White_ has caught up with the internet yet.

Answer 3

I also like the Purdue University site, as well as the Diana Hacker website.

Be sure to introduce your quote somehow, with some kind of phrase or sentence. Try not to just drop it at the beginning without a context for the reader.

Answer 4

I don't know that there is a standard for this yet. I'd just put in the footnote:
www.finesite.com/topic/subtopic/page23.htm
or whatever it is. If the page is large, you could add a qualification as to the location on the page.

Answer 5

http://citationmachine.net/index.php?new_style=2#here

I swear, this is one of the best sites ever. My teacher told our class about it one day, and now I use it all the time. It's so easy to use; all you do is type the information in the appropriate blanks and then the generator does its magic :] I hope that helps.

Answer 6

This is an excellent site that sites in APA. I used it for college classes. http://72.32.51.103/index.php?new_style=2

Answer 7

intoduce the quote with a source such as doctor stainbrook says, "Plagiarism is evil"