If you're writing a research paper, you probably want to use news articles you find on the Internet as sources. If you use the American Psychological Association (APA) citation style, you will need to include both an in-text citation and an entry in the bibliographic references at the end of the article. In general, these entries should include enough information so that readers can find the document you consulted when writing your article. If you used an online news article as your source, you will need to include the URL of the story in the bibliographic reference entry.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Write the bibliographic references entry
Step 1. Begin the entry by typing the author's last name
Typically, the author of an online news article is listed under the headline, although it may sometimes appear at the end of the article. To cite him, write the author's last name first, followed by a comma, and then his first initial. Include middle initial if available.
- Example: Alpert, A.
- If there are multiple authors, separate their names using commas, and the "&" sign before the last author's name.
- If no author is mentioned in the article, skip this item and start the entry by typing the title.
Step 2. Enter the date of the article when it was published or last updated
Look for the publication date at the top of the article, below the heading. Include the date in parentheses, starting with the year. Then put a comma and write the month and day the article was published (if available). Do not abbreviate the month. Place a period after the closing parentheses.
Example: Alpert, A. (2019, February 20)
Step 3. Write the title and subtitle of the article respecting upper and lower case
After including the publication date, write the title of the article, capitalizing only the first word and proper nouns. If the article has a subtitle, put a colon after the title and then write it respecting the rules of upper and lower case. Finally, put a period at the end.
Example: Alpert, A. (2019, February 20). Good Enough Life: The desire for greatness can be a hindrance to our own potential
Step 4. Include the name of the newspaper or website
After the title, italicize the name of the newspaper or website where you found the article. Capitalize the first word and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. Finally, put a period.
Example: Alpert, A. (2019, February 20). Good Enough Life: The desire for greatness can be a hindrance to our own potential. The New York Times
Step 5. Finish by typing the URL of the article
After the title of the newspaper or website, write the words "Retrieved from" followed by the URL. The APA style recommends using the home page of the website or newspaper in most cases, so that you avoid the possibility of including a URL that does not work. Don't put a period at the end of the URL.
Example: Alpert, A. (2019, February 20). Good Enough Life: The desire for greatness can be a hindrance to our own potential. The New York Times. Recovered from
Format in the list of bibliographic references:
Author, A. A. (year, month and day). Title of the article respecting upper and lower case: Subtitle of the article respecting upper and lower case. Title of the newspaper or website. Retrieved from URL
Method 2 of 2: Create In-Text Citations
Step 1. Include the author's name and year of publication when paraphrasing
Usually, you need a text quote in parentheses at the end of a sentence in which you paraphrase information from the news article. To create the citation, first type the author's last name, followed by a comma, and then the year of publication of the article. Place a period after the closing parentheses.
For example, you could write the following: The idea that striving for greatness may not be the best goal for humanity is based on hundreds of years of philosophy (Alpert, 2019)
Tip:
APA style requires a parenthetical citation at the end of a sentence where a source is paraphrased. The only exception would be a block quote of multiple sentences from the same source. In this case, the quotation in parentheses should come at the end.
Step 2. Use the first words of the title in case the article does not mention an author
If no author is mentioned in the news article, enclose the first words of the title in quotation marks in parentheses. Place a comma inside the quotation marks and also include the year of publication of the article.
For example, suppose one of the sources used was a “La Prensa” article titled “How La Prensa journalists tracked the rise in fentanyl”. This article does not include the name of an author, but rather is simply attributed to "staff." If you paraphrased or quoted the article in your document, the text citation would be the following: (“La Prensa”, 2018)
Step 3. Include a page or paragraph number for direct citations
If you want to create a text citation for a direct quote, send readers to the exact location where the material appears. For news articles on the Internet that do not have numbered pages, count the paragraphs. Write a comma after the year of publication and then write the abbreviation "vine." Followed by the paragraph number.
For example, you could write the following: A “good enough” relationship with nature implies that “we recognize both the abundance and the limitations of the planet that we share along with other infinite forms of life” (Alpert, 2019, para. 7)
Step 4. Omit information already provided in the body of the article
If you include the author's name in the body of the article, you don't need to repeat it in a parenthetical citation. Instead, put the year in parentheses after its name. If you included both elements in the body of the article, you will not need a parenthetical citation for the paraphrased material.
- If you name the author in the body of the article and quote the article directly, include a quote in parentheses after the quote along with the page or paragraph number where the cited material appears.
- For articles that do not have an individual author, it will not be necessary to put a full citation in parentheses if you include the title of the article in the body of the document. As with the author's name, simply put the year of publication of the article in parentheses immediately after its title.