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APA Style for Writing: Newspaper Articles

This guide will cover APA format for papers.

How Do I Know If It's a Newspaper?

Newspaper sections spread out on a table, Image from flickr, user NS Newsflash

Photo from Flickr, created by user NS Newsflash. Available under a Creative Commons license.

Not sure whether your article is from a newspaper? Look for these characteristics:

  • Main purpose is to provide readers with a brief account of current events locally, nationally or internationally.
  • Can be published daily, semiweekly or weekly.
  • Articles are usually written by journalists who may or may not have subject expertise.
  • Written for the general public, readers don't need any previous subject knowledge.
  • Little, if any, information about other sources is provided.

Articles may also come from journals or magazines.

Tips

Author

If an item has no author, start the citation with the article title.

If, and only if, the article is signed "Anonymous", put the word Anonymous where you would normally place the author's name.

Titles

Italicize titles of journals, magazines and newspapers. Do not italicize the titles of articles.

Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the article title. If there is a colon in the article title, also capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon.

Dates

If an item has no date, use the short form n.d. where you would normally put the date.

Retrieval Dates

Most articles will not need these in the citation. Only use them for online articles from places where content may change often, like a free website or a wiki.

Page Numbers

If an article has no page numbers provided, leave that part of the citation out in the References List.

If an article doesn't appear on continuous pages, list all the page numbers the article is on, separated by commas. For example (4, 6, 12-14)

For newspaper articles, put p. before the page number if the article is one page long and pp. if it is more than one page

Formatting

Note: All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Newspaper Article From a Library Database

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication, Month Day if Given). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Newspaper, p. SectionPage if given. Retrieved from Database Name database.

Reference List Example

Schachter, H. (2012, June 18). What does it take to be a good team player? The Globe and Mail, p. B7. Retrieved from Canadian Major Dailies database.

Note: If an article ends with a question mark or exclamation mark (!), you do not need to add a period to mark the end of the title.

In-Text Paraphrase

(Author's Last Name, Year)

Example: (Schachter, 2012)

In-Text Quote

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page Number)

(Schachter, 2012, p. B7)

Newspaper Article From a Website

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication, Month Day if Given). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Newspaper. Retrieved from URL

Note: If the the article is on more than one page use the letters "pp." before the page numbers instead of "p.". If the article is on continuous pages put a dash (-) between the first and last page numbers. If the article appears on discontinuous page numbers, give all page numbers separated with commas between them.

Reference List Example

Aw, J. (2012, June 12). Stopping the soda bulge: Why we need to consider restricting sugary beverages. National Post. Retrieved from http://life.nationalpost.com/2012/06/12/stopping-the-soda-bulge-why-we-need-to-consider-restricting-sugary-beverages/

Note: This entry has no page numbers, so this information is left out of the citation.

In-Text Paraphrase

(Author's Last Name, Year)

Example: (Aw, 2012)

In-Text Quote

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page Number)

Example: (Aw, 2012)

Note: This entry has no page numbers, paragraph numbers or section headings so this information is left out of the in-text citation.

Newspaper Article In Print

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication, Month Day if Given). Title of article: Subtitle if any. Name of Newspaper, p. SectionPage.

Note: If the the article is on more than one page use the letters "pp." before the page numbers instead of "p.". If the article is on continuous pages put a dash (-) between the first and last page numbers. If the article appears on discontinuous page numbers, give all page numbers separated with commas between them.

Reference List Example

Aulakh, R. (2012, June 13). From surviving to thriving. Toronto Star, pp. GT1, GT4.

In-Text Paraphrase

(Author's Last Name, Year)

Example: (Aulakh, 2012)

In-Text Quote

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page Number)

Example: (Aulakh, 2012, p. GT1)

Newspaper Article with an Unknown Author

Title of article: Subtitle if any. (Year of Publication, Month Day if Given). Name of Newspaper, p. SectionPage.

Note: If instead of having no author, the article is signed as being written by "Anonymous", put the name "Anonymous" where you'd normally put the author's name. Only use the word Anonymous if the article is specifically credited that way.

Reference List Example

Get on board for train safety. (2012, June 17). Toronto Star, A14.

In-Text Paraphrase

("One two or three words from the title", Year)

Example: ("Get on board", 2012)

Note: Choose one or more words from the title, enough to clearly identify the article. Use double quotation marks around the words from a title of an article in the in-text citation.

In-Text Quote

("One two or three words from the title", Year, p. Page Number)

Example: ("Get on board," p. A14)

Note: Choose one or more words from the title, enough to clearly identify the article. Use double quotation marks around the words from title of an article in the in-text citation.

© 2020 Dallas College

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