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APA Style: Basics

This guide is intended to help you cite sources in APA style, avoid plagiarism, learn what APA style is and includes, find examples of APA style, lead you to campus resources that can help you cite sources in APA, and more.

Why Cite in Your Presentation?

Verbally citing your source in a presentation will:

  • Add credibility to your statements
  • Give credit to others for their work and ideas
  • Helps listeners find the source if they want to learn more

Creating a Verbal Citation:

If your video assignment or presentation requires you provide supporting evidence for your claims, you will need to cite your source(s) verbally. While APA Style doesn’t include specific rules for verbal citations, it’s still important to credit your sources when speaking. A good verbal citation briefly tells your audience who, what, and when, so they understand where your information came from and can locate the source if they want to verify it.

What to Include

Your verbal citation should highlight the most relevant details:

  • Author's name
    • Use the organization’s name if there is no identified author
  • Author's Credentials
    • Use organization’s credentials if there is no identified author
  • Title and/or type of work
    • Identify it as an article, research study, survey, song, data report, etc.
  • Publication date (if relevant)
    • Identify the year of publication, or date of last update if it’s a website

How to Introduce It

Use an introductory phrase to smoothly incorporate the source:

"According to Professor Dumbledore at Hogwarts University..."

"Rita Sketter, a journalist with the Daily Prophet, wrote in her 2014 article..."

Sample Format

“According to [Author’s name], [credentials or organization], in [year] [type of work, e.g., article/book/report] titled [title]…”

 

Additional Examples

Quoting: “In a 1990 article published in American Psychologist titled ‘Why the Self Is Empty,’ Philip Cushman wrote that ‘[quotation].’”

Paraphrasing: “A 2021 study by psychologist Angela Duckworth suggests that perseverance, or ‘grit,’ predicts long-term success more than intelligence alone.”

Brief version: “According to a 2022 article in Nature by climate scientist Michael Mann…”

Citing Sources Verbally

Wondering how to give credit to your sources when speaking? These four examples show how to briefly mention who, what, and when so listeners know where your information came from.

Citing Sources Verbally

Acknowledgement

This content was adapted from the Towson University Albert S. Cook Library’s COMM 131/132: Public Speaking Guide.