How To Cite A Website In Apa

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How to Cite a Website APA – The common way to cite a website in APA is to start by writing the last name of the author first, followed by their first initial, Then the Date article was Published, lastly Article title and Retrieved from URL.

Example: Kamal, L. (2015, May 15). Health Informatics. Retrieved from https://www.kamal-healthinfo.com

It is often frustrating to have your tutor or supervisor throw your work back at you because your citations were not properly arranged or particularly not properly referenced website citation. It can even be more annoying not to know how to go about it, but when you do, you find out that it is simple and easy.

It is important as an academician to learn and know How to Cite Websites in APA format because it is the popular standard format of referencing. Thus, this article is centered on teaching you how to cite a website in APA and all you need to know.

How to Cite a Website, Book, Video, and Journal in APA

APA CitationFORMATEXAMPLE
Website:Author last, First initial. (Date). Page title. Retrieved from URLSandra, K. (2000, January 30). The financial implication of Drugs Abuse. Retrieved from http://fintalk.com
Book:Author last, First initial. (Year). Title. City: Publisher.Jaden, S. (1992). Walking the snow. New York: Bethpage.
Video:Last, First initial (Producer), & Last, First initial (Director). (Year). Title [Medium]. Country: Studio.Broccoli, A. (Producer), Saltzman, H. (Producer), & Hamilton, G. (Director). (1964). Goldfinger [Motion picture]. United Kingdom: Eon.
Journal:Author last, First initial. (Year). Article title. Journal title, Volume(Issue), Pages. doi: Digital object identifierKahneman, D. (2003). A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded rationality. American Psychologist, 58(9), 697—720. doi: 10.1037/0003-066x.58.9.697
How to Cite a Website apa, Book, Video, or a Journal

Quick Guide on How to Cite A Website In Apa

There are basically two formats to cite a website in APA, You can either use Reference Citation or In-text Citation.

Method 1: In reference citation

  1. The last name comes first
  2. Followed by the first or middle name initials
  3. Then Year Month Date Published
  4. Title of the article or individual page
  5. Lastly, The retrieved from URL or direct link to the resource

Structure: Last, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Retrieved from URL

how to cite a website apa
how to cite an online page apa

Method 2: In-text Citation

This is used to cite a website within your piece of writing to identify where you got the information from. Follow the step below to cite using the in-text format:

  1. The last name comes first
  2. Followed by the Year source article was Published

Structure: Last Name. (2020)

Full Guide on How to Cite A Website Apa

Of all the sources to cite a website seems to be challenging for academicians, most often, they don’t know how to go about it. Some just insert the website url the way they copied it without proper arrangement.

This may cause your paper not to be accepted and queried. Therefore, since our focus is on using the APA format to reference websites, we will provide you with two different ways to cite a website in Apa, which are:

  1. Reference Citation
  2. In-text Citation

1. Reference Citation

Structure:

This is the ideal way to Cite a Website in APA format in your work. Below is some example for more emphasis.

Last, F. M. (Year, Month Date Published). Article title. Retrieved from URL

Example:

Kamal, L. (2015, May 15). Health Informatics. Retrieved from http://www.kamal-healthinfo.com

Segne, G. (2010, April 29). The Impact of Social Media Today. Retrieved from http://socio123.com

Sandra, K. (2000, January 30). The financial implication of Drugs Abuse. Retrieved from http://fintalk.com

This is How to Cite a Website in APA format, especially when all the information (Name, date, and title) is available. Brings us to ask, What if there is no Author’s name on the website I want to cite? Then you need to keep reading.

How to Cite a Website APA (with no Author name)?

Not every website provides the name of the author that wrote the piece that you want to add to your academic work, and it is needful for you to cite it because it isn’t your original writing. If this is your case and you don’t know how to go about it, follow the steps provided below.

Structure:

To Cite a website in APA format with no Author’s name, follow the structure shown below.

Article title. (Year, Month Date Published). Retrieved from URL

Example:

Health is Wealth (2014, December 3). Retrieved from https://www.indiacelebrating.com/essay/health-is-wealth-essay

Organic farming (2013, April, 10). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/organic-farming

Now you have a glimpse of how to cite a Website with no Author in APA Format. It is necessary to bear in mind that, if the source you are citing in your academic thesis or assignment is an independent source, such as a whole book, TV series program, or film, the title of such sources ought to be in italics.

In addition, probably you want to cite a bit of a bigger source, for example, a farming article, a page on a site, or a scene of a show, the title ought to be in sentence case (UPPER CASE) and not in italics.

How do you cite a website in APA (with no Author’s name / Date)?

We don’t want to ignore the possibility of this scenario happening. You may probably have or presently encountering the challenge of citing a website having no date. This may cause you to wonder how you can go about citing this website; it’s no big deal! You can use the APA style to reference this website, and we’ll show you in a glimpse how to go about it. Just follow the step below to cite a Website With no Date

Structure:

Article title. (n.d). Retrieved from URL

Example:

A Brief History of Africa (n.d.). Retrieved from   http://www.localhistories.org/africanhistory.html

Nomenclature and Classification of (n.d). Retrieved from https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/17100/ent_FCT_94.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Note: n.d in bracket means “No Date.”

2. In-Text Citation

You may also want to cite a website within your piece of writing to identify where you got the information from. Citing a website within an academic piece or any literature is known as In-text citation. The in-text citation is quite different from reference citation, and it’s often shorter when compared to the reference.

An in-text citation is used when you want to refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote a sentence, paragraph from another source. For every in-text citation in your work, you must put a corresponding entry in your reference list.

To use an APA format in-text citation for website sources, you will use the Author and Date, if known. In the case whereby the author is unknown use the Title and the Date. If the title is long, you can use the first few words. Importantly, your in-text citation should also be found in the reference of your work so as to point readers to the corresponding reference list where they get a vivid view of the complete citation. Also, if there is no date, use (n.d).

  • Structure

Last Name. (Date)

  • Example

Samson (2008)

  • Structure

Title. (Date)

  • Example

The Importance of Reading (2018)

  • Structure

(Last Name, n.d.)

  • Example

(Drawing, n.d.)

How To Cite An Online Transcript Or Video In APA and MLA 8

A transcript is a written or printed version of material originally presented in another medium. In this contest, we will use Obama’s farewell transcript for better understanding.

Here is Former US President Barack Obama’s farewell address found on The Obama White House YouTube Chanel. This farewell video of President Obama’s speech would be cited like this in MLA 8:

How to cite the video in MLA 8:

Last name, First name. “Title of the Video.” Title of the website, Date the resource was published, URL.

Obama, Barack. “Farewell Address to the American People.” YouTube, 10 Jan. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDyjUIsD-wQ.

How to cite a video in APA:

Screen name. (Full date the resource was published). Title of the video [Video file]. Retrieved from URL

The above video of President Obama’s speech would be cited like this in APA:

The Obama White House. (2017, January 10). Farewell address to the American people [Video file]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDyjUIsD-wQ

How to cite an online transcript in MLA 8:

Here is Former US President Barack Obama’s farewell address found on Archives.gov. Archived from the White House’s website. This farewell video of President Obama’s speech would be cited like this in MLA 8:

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of the Article or Individual Page.” Title of the Website, Name of the publisher, Date the resource was published, URL.

Obama, Barack. “President Obama’s Farewell Address.” National Archives, The United States Government, 10 Jan. 2017, www.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/farewell

How to cite an online transcript in APA:

In this case, The speech would be cited like this in APA:

Author’s Last name, F.M. (Year published). Title of the article or individual page [Format]. Retrieved from URL

Obama, B. (2017). President Obama’s farewell address [Transcript]. Retrieved from //www.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/farewell

About APA

APA is an acronym for the American Psychological Association, a scientific and professional body that represents psychologists in the United States. The body is known to be the originator of the APA style of referencing.

The APA format is official and commonly used by the organization to cite sources in psychology, education, and the social sciences. The APA format has been around since 1929 when it was used in a published article “Psychological Bulletin” that serves as the basic guideline.

You might ask then, why the APA format is so important for academicians. Using APA style helps students and researchers writing a thesis or any paper to appropriately communicate information about their ideas and experiments in a consistent format.

Continuously use of a consistent citation style allows gives readers a foreknowledge on what to look for as they read your paper and other forms of academic on non-academic writing.

Important Tips for APA Style Citation

We also provide you with important tips and guidelines that you need to be familiar with so that you can properly cite your work. Also, these tips are up to date as provided in the sixth edition manual.

  • Your citations (references) should begin on a new page titled “References.” The title should be placed in the center at the top of the page.
  • All your citations should be arranged in alphabetical order.
  • The first line of a reference should be at the same level as the left margin. The additional line should be indented (usually accomplished by using the TAB key or pressing Ctrl + T.)
  • Previous APA format requires only one space after each sentence. However, the new format (sixth edition) now recommends two spaces.
  • Double-space in the reference section.
  • All sources cited in your work should appear within your paper (in-text citation) and on the reference page as well. This means any source that appears in your paper must be in your reference citation and sources found in your reference citation should be found the in-text citation.

Titles of works of literature (books, journals, magazines, and newspapers) should be in italics.

Ensure that when Citing the Website in your paper, you put these tips or guides into consideration so that, you will not be out of line.

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Conclusion

There you have all you need to know about how to cite a website apa. Citing a website in APA will no longer be difficult after reading this article because all you need to know have been covered here. More so, APA makes it easy and points readers to know which part of the work was not written by you but makes known the original author.

Though there are other formats of referencing APA is the most widely used and accepted, making it necessary for you to be familiar with it.

Your academic excellence is our concern, and that is why we’ve deemed it fit to write on How to Cite a Website in APA.

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