APA Style
In order to document ideas in writing, a variety of styles may be employed. However, one of the most effective methods to do so is the APA style. With its help, the author makes it easy for readers to find the sources that were employed while writing the paper. APA style has an author-date format, which allows readers to identify when the source was published and who its authors are. Apart from giving the basic information about the source, the use of APA style allows the author to avoid the instances of plagiarism. By indicating the book or article that was consulted, the scholar gives credit to other authors and shows respect towards their work. Moreover, those readers who want to find some additional information on the topic will know where to find it. Therefore, an in-text citation is a good way of keeping one’s readers informed of the sources the author consulted and of avoiding the instances of plagiarism.
Here is an example of an in-text citation for the article used in the week 2 assignment: “In their article on insulting and beating children as a risk of asthma, cardiac disease, and cancer, Hyland, Alkhalaf, and Whalley (2013) remark that a threatening manner of parenting is related to the high risk of somatic disease.” If there are three or more authors, subsequent citations only mention the first surname that is followed by “et al.” – a Latin phrase that means “and others.” Therefore, the subsequent in-text citation for the same source will be formatted as follows: “According to Hyland et al. (2013), a threatening parenting style may have a detrimental impact not only on children’s behavior but also on their physical health.”
Direct Quoting
The second way of letting the reader know that some information has been borrowed from other scholars is direct quoting. There are some basic differences between in-text citations and quotations. The first issue concerns formatting. Whereas in-text citations only require the author and the date, quotations additionally demand including a page number. The second difference is associated with the purpose of quoting types. When using an in-text citation, authors only borrow some ideas but use it to formulate their own point of view. They paraphrase the text that has been consulted. On the other hand, quotations are employed when some thoughts or ideas in the source are unique and extremely vital, and the author cannot add anything to them but merely wants to emphasize their significance for the project.
When quoting the material directly, it is crucial to keep in mind several things. First of all, the text that is quoted must be put in quotation marks. Secondly, it is not allowed to quote long sentences. Usually, two lines are the largest allowed limit. Thirdly, it is necessary to indicate not only the authors’ surnames and the year of publication in brackets but also page numbers. Citing direct quotes, as well as an in-text citation, helps scholars to avoid the instances of plagiarism and demonstrate their respect towards other authors. Here are examples of quoted material from the article used in the week 2 assignment:
- According to Gershoff (2013), the majority of parents have two major aims to spank their children: “(a) to punish misbehavior and thereby reduce the recurrence of the undesirable behavior and (b) to increase the likelihood of desirable behavior in the future” (p. 133).
- It is noted that “the abundance and consistency of studies linking spanking with undesirable outcomes in children have failed to spur societal change in attitudes about or use of spanking” (Gershoff, 2013, p. 135).
References
Gershoff, E. T. (2013). Spanking and child development: We know enough now to stop hitting our children. Child Development Perspectives, 7(3), 133-137.
Hyland, M. E., Alkhalaf, A. M., & Whalley, B. (2013). Beating and insulting children as a risk for adult cancer, cardiac disease and asthma. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 36(6), 632-640.