There are two major ways to create APA-style citations:

• Number 1:  Using the citation tools in many of the electronic databases where you find sources such as ebooks, magazine and journal articles, newspaper articles, and more.  However, while these tools can be helpful, they also often create mistakes in the citations they generate.   So that means YOU must be able to identify the problems in those automatic citations and FIX them.  To enable you to develop these skills, in this workshop, we will focus on the second way of creating citations, #2 below:

• Number 2:  Creating APA citations from scratch, based on the information you are given from the source itself. 

Scroll down to the next section to see what information is typically required in a citation.

The following elements are common to include in a citation for typical sources such as books and articles, respectively (although, depending on the source, additional information may be required):

For a book:

• Author 
• Year of publication
• Title of book
• Publisher
• If it's from an electronic source, then a DOI number, if available

​For an article in a print magazine or journal:

• Author(s)
• Date of publication (Year; Month Year; or Year, Month Day)
• Title of Article
• Title of Publication (Magazine or Journal name)
• Volume number (corresponds to the year)
• Issue number (corresponds to month/day, but is not always required)
• Page numbers
• If it's from an electronic source, then a "DOI" link (which stands for "Digital Object Identifier"), if available--otherwise, it looks just like a citation to a print journal article.

Now take a look at Step 6 (below to the right or in the left sidebar) to see examples and explanations of APA citations.