APA Style, 7th Edition

About APA Style

Using this guide

This guide provides basic information about how to format, cite, and build a reference using the 7th edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) Style Publication Manual.

For templates and examples of how to reference specific source types (books, journal articles, YouTube videos, etc.), search for the source type in our Help database. 

Writing help

Students can contact the Academic Success Centre to have a writing specialist give feedback on a written assignment.

APA Help

Visit our Help page for answers to all of your APA questions. Type your question into the search bar to find an answer.

What is APA Style?

American Psychological Association (APA) Style is a set of rules for how to:

  • format your assignments
  • write in an academic setting
  • credit the sources you use

Why give credit? 

In college assignments, you are expected to support your assignments with reliable sources of evidence. Evidence can come from many different types of sources: books, book chapters, journal articles, reliable webpages, conference proceedings, reports, news articles, etc.

Any time you use information from another source, you are required to give credit. Giving credit allows you to: 

  • Avoid plagiarism by acknowledging and valuing the original ideas of others
  • Support your statements with evidence 
  • Connect your reader with the sources you used

Where do I give credit?

When you use information from a source, you need to give credit in two places:

In the body of your assignment -> Citation; At the end of your assignment -> Reference              

All of the sources you use to support your assignment must have both a citation and a reference.