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APA 7th Edition - Citation Guide - CBS Library

Narrative Citations

Narrative citations are the preferred method of citing quotes. You may also use them for paraphrasing or summarizing. The strength of narrative citations is that it flows better for a reader. A narrative citations weaves in the author's name(s) into the text, and then adds in the year in parentheses. The page number will bookend the quote at the end.

You will often want to use a signal phrase to introduce a narrative citation. For an overview of signal phrases along with some examples, visit George Mason University's page on Signal Phrases.

Template

Last name (Year) ... "quote" or paraphrase (p. X).

Examples

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011), rates for pregnancy, STDs and abortion are much higher in the US than in other industrialized countries (para. 1).

Pink (2009) explains that "rewards, by their very nature, narrow our focus. That’s helpful when there’s a clear path to a solution" (p. 42).

Valenas et al. (2017) explored the impact of attentional bias and rumination on test anxiety in first-year university students.

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