An APA in text citation is the short note you place inside your sentence to point readers to the full reference at the end of your paper. In APA 7th edition, the basic pattern is the author’s last name and the year of publication, plus a page number when you quote directly: (Author, Year, p. X). These brief credits work together with your APA reference page so every claim can be traced back to its source. This guide covers narrative and parenthetical formats, how to handle one, two, or many authors, group authors, missing information, direct quotes, and secondary sources.
Narrative vs. parenthetical citations
APA offers two ways to credit a source, and you can use either one depending on how your sentence reads. In a parenthetical citation, the author and year sit together inside parentheses at the end of the sentence. In a narrative citation, the author’s name appears in your running text and the year follows in parentheses right after it. Both forms carry the same information, so the choice is about flow. If you want a deeper comparison, see our guide on parenthetical vs. narrative citations.
Hartwell, J. (2021). Reading habits in the digital age. Meridian Press.
Parenthetical: (Hartwell, 2021). Narrative: Hartwell (2021) argued that screen time reshapes attention.
Notice that the narrative form uses the word “and” between two authors when their names are part of the sentence, while the parenthetical form uses an ampersand (&). That small distinction trips up many writers, so it is worth checking every time. You can also let the APA citation generator build both versions for you and copy whichever fits.
One, two, and three or more authors
The number of authors changes how much you write. For a single author, list the surname and year. For two authors, name both every time you cite them. For three or more authors, give only the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” in every citation, starting with the very first one. APA 7 removed the old rule that required spelling out all names the first time, so “et al.” appears from the start. For more on this shorthand, read what “et al.” means and our guide to citing multiple authors.
Okafor, L., & Bell, R. (2020). Group dynamics in remote teams. Crestview.
Two authors: (Okafor & Bell, 2020). Narrative: Okafor and Bell (2020) found…
Nguyen, T., Alvarez, M., & Park, S. (2019). Sleep and student performance. Halcyon.
Three or more authors, first cite and all later cites: (Nguyen et al., 2019).
Group authors and abbreviations
When the author is an organization, agency, or company, use the full group name as the author. If the group has a well-known abbreviation, you can introduce it the first time and then use the short form afterward. Spell out the name in the first citation, place the abbreviation in brackets, and switch to the abbreviation in every later citation. This keeps long names from cluttering your text while staying clear. Organizations often appear when you cite a government website or a report.
World Health Organization. (2022). Global status report on physical activity. https://www.example.org/report
First cite: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2022). Later cites: (WHO, 2022).
No author and no date
Sometimes a source has no named author. In that case, move the title into the author position. Use the first few words of the title, capitalized in title case for the citation, and italicize it if the full reference italicizes it (books and reports) or place it in quotation marks if it is an article or webpage. When a source has no publication date, use “n.d.” (no date) in place of the year. These situations come up often online, so see how to cite a source with no author and how to cite a source with no date.
Understanding climate adaptation. (n.d.). Example Institute. https://www.example.com/climate
No author, no date: (Understanding Climate Adaptation, n.d.).
Reyes, D. (2023). Tips for better study sessions. Campus Weekly. https://www.example.com/study-tips
Article title in place of missing author would use quotation marks: (“Tips for Better Study Sessions,” 2023).
Direct quotes with page or paragraph numbers
When you quote a source word for word, you must add a location so readers can find the exact passage. Use “p.” for a single page and “pp.” for a range. If the source has no page numbers, as with many web pages, cite the paragraph number using “para.” or name the section heading. The same rule applies whether you cite a quote from a book or a website. For longer passages, our note on how to format a block quote explains the indentation rules.
Hartwell, J. (2021). Reading habits in the digital age. Meridian Press.
Quote with page: “Attention is a renewable resource” (Hartwell, 2021, p. 47). No pages: (Hartwell, 2021, para. 3).
Secondary sources and multiple works
If you read a source that quotes another source you could not access, cite the secondary source with “as cited in.” Name the original author in your sentence, then point to the work you actually read in the parentheses. Use this sparingly and try to locate the original when you can. See how to cite a secondary source for the reference list rule, which lists only the source you read.
Bell, R. (2020). Memory and learning. Crestview.
Secondary source: Vygotsky’s theory of scaffolding (as cited in Bell, 2020) supports this view. If you know the original year, include it: (Vygotsky, 1978, as cited in Bell, 2020).
When one point is backed by several studies, you can cite multiple works in a single set of parentheses. List them alphabetically by author and separate each with a semicolon. This keeps a well-supported claim tidy instead of forcing a separate citation for each source.
Multiple sources combined in one citation.
Multiple works: (Bell, 2020; Hartwell, 2021; Nguyen et al., 2019).
Common mistakes to avoid
A few errors show up again and again. First, mixing “and” with the ampersand: use “and” in narrative text and “&” only inside parentheses. Second, dropping the page number from a direct quote. Third, forgetting “et al.” on a later citation of a three-author source, or spelling out all authors as if it were APA 6. Fourth, leaving the year out of a narrative citation. Fifth, listing multiple works in citation order rather than alphabetical order. If you are juggling several styles for one assignment, compare formats with our overview of in-text citations, the APA vs. MLA comparison, and the citation styles explained guide. The full APA format guide covers paper-wide formatting.
Master these patterns and your in-text citations will stay consistent across an entire paper. When you want to double-check a tricky source or save time, build the entry with our free APA tool, and if your class uses a different system you can switch to the MLA generator, Chicago generator, or Harvard generator with the same details. Accurate citations protect you from accidental plagiarism and show readers exactly where your evidence comes from, which is the whole point of citing in the first place.