APA 7, made simple

Add the page number: p. for one page, pp. for a range.

Pattern

“Quote” (Lastname, year, p. #).

Lastname (year) wrote that “quote” (p. #).

Examples

“Language is not simply a static system of syntactic, semantic, and phonetic rules” (García, 2023, p. 6).

García (2023) argued that “translanguaging pedagogical practices must respond to the ways of languaging of bilinguals” (p. 9).

For a quote of 40 words or more, use a block quote: start it on a new line, indent the whole quote 0.5 inch, leave out the quotation marks, and put the citation after the final period.

The author and year are enough. A page number is optional but helpful.

Pattern

Your summary (LastnameA & LastnameB, year).

LastnameA and LastnameB (year) + your summary.

Examples

Communicative competence includes grammatical, sociolinguistic, and strategic competence (Canale & Swain, 1980).

Canale and Swain (1980) divided communicative competence into grammatical, sociolinguistic, and strategic competence.

With two authors, write & inside parentheses and and in your sentence.

Write the first author’s last name and et al. in every citation, including the first one.

Pattern

Your sentence (LastnameA et al., year).

LastnameA et al. (year) + your sentence.

Examples

Multilingualism, interdisciplinarity, and technology run as themes through the whole field of applied linguistics (Conrad et al., 2020).

Conrad et al. (2020) designed their introduction to show students what it is like to do applied linguistics.

Editors are cited the same way as authors, as in this edited book.

Write the organization’s full name. If it has a well-known short form, give the short form the first time you cite it, then use only the short form.

Pattern

First time: (Full Name [ABBR], year) or Full Name (ABBR, year)

After that: (ABBR, year) or ABBR (year)

Examples

The 2024 update revised the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages [ACTFL], 2024).

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL, 2024) released revised proficiency guidelines in 2024.

The update aimed to make the guidelines clearer and easier to use (ACTFL, 2024).

ACTFL (2024) also aligned the guidelines with its other key documents.

The first two examples show the first citation; the last two show later citations. The short form is only for your text: the reference list always uses the full name.

When two first authors in your reference list share a last name, add their initials in every citation, even if the years differ.

Pattern

(A. Lastname, year; B. Lastname, year)

A. Lastname (year) … B. Lastname (year)

Examples

Input and frequency have long been central topics in second language acquisition research (N. C. Ellis, 2002; R. Ellis, 1994).

N. C. Ellis (2002) reviewed frequency effects in language processing, while R. Ellis (1994) surveyed the field of second language acquisition as a whole.

Add a, b, and so on after the year, in your text and in your reference list. The letters follow the alphabetical order of the titles.

Pattern

(Lastname, yeara, yearb)

Lastname (yeara) … Lastname (yearb)

Examples

Native speakers adjust both their language and the conversation itself when talking with non-native speakers (Long, 1983a, 1983b).

Long (1983b) argued that these conversational adjustments help make input comprehensible.

In the reference list, “Long, M. H. (1983a). Linguistic and conversational adjustments…” comes before “Long, M. H. (1983b). Native speaker/non-native speaker conversation…” because the titles are in alphabetical order.

In parentheses, list the sources in the same order as your reference list (alphabetical), separated by semicolons. In a narrative sentence, you can name them in any order.

Pattern

(LastnameA, year; LastnameB, year)

Examples

Researchers have long debated what it means to communicate successfully in a second language (Canale & Swain, 1980; Firth & Wagner, 1997; Swain, 1985).

Canale and Swain (1980), Swain (1985), and Firth and Wagner (1997) all examined what successful communication in a second language involves.

When you quote a webpage or another source without page numbers, count the paragraphs and give the paragraph number. You can also name the section heading, or both.

Pattern

(Lastname, year, para. #)

(Lastname, year, Heading section)

(Lastname, year, Heading section, para. #)

Examples

First released in 1986, the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines are “widely recognized as the global gold standard for assessing functional language ability” (ACTFL, 2024, para. 2).

ACTFL (2024, para. 2) described its guidelines as “widely recognized as the global gold standard for assessing functional language ability.”

Both examples quote the same sentence, which is in the second paragraph of the ACTFL webpage, so both cite para. 2. They use the short form ACTFL because the full name was given earlier (see Organization as author).