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Hello, do I list a reference for an author if I did not use a direct quote for them in my paper? I only summarized the book in my own words and

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Hello, do I list a reference for an author if I did not use a direct quote for them in my paper? I only summarized the book in my own words and listed the author in title, in-text. Thanks.

Answered By: Linda Kern
Last Updated: Jan 04, 2017     Views: 101

Hello!

How you used the other author's information isn't the question to ask. It doesn't matter whether you quoted, paraphrased, or summarized someone else's information.

The question to ask is, "Did you use information from a source other than your own opinions and conclusions?" If the answer is yes, the the source has to be cited in the text and in the references. Every in-text citation must have a matching reference entry. Every reference entry must have a matching in-text citation (but could have more than one). The only exception is personal communications such as interviews and emails, which don't provide recoverable data that someone could track down using the reference entry. Personal communications use only in-text citations.

In the text, APA doesn't write out the title of the book or chapter (In his book Seven Easy Steps to Citing Your Sources, Sam Smith said...). It simply cites the author and date following the information.

If the book has chapters written by different people, the cite the specific chapter that contains the information you used:

In the text

...(Author & Author, year).

In the reference list:

Print book:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of chapter. In A. Editor, & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Location: Publisher.

Online book:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of chapter. In A. Editor, & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Retrieved from http://www...

If the book doesn't have separate authors for each chapter, cite the entire book.

In the text

...(Author & Author, year).

In the reference list:

Print book:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Location: Publisher.

Online book:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (year). Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Retrieved from http://www...

See the Citing Sources Using APA tab of the Business LibGuide for some short videos on citing and referencing sources.

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