The basics of APA citations. References vs. citations. Formatting author information. Formatting titles and dates. Example quotes. Cite books. In citing, the APA requires FOUR ELEMENTS of each citation: Who - Author of the content. When and date the content was published. What- Content title. Where - Publication, How to cite sources in APA format. Written by Daniel Elias on. The most confusing and time-consuming part of writing an APA-style paper is: Basic Elements 1:04 In-text Citations 2:53 Reference Lists 4:50, Complete Final Edit. APA citations in the text. APA citations in the text. Duration: 2h55; A direct e is a piece of text copied verbatim from a source. You can use a word, a phrase, a sentence or an entire passage. There are three main rules for APA style: If the e is a word, place it between double ation marks. If there are e words or more, format it as a block e.Basic book citation format. The in-text citation of a book includes the author's last name, the year, and, if available, a page number. In the reference list, start with the author's last name and initials, followed by the year. The title of the book is written in capitals only the first word and any proper nouns. Include all other contributors. There are several steps you need to follow to prepare a new APA style paper before you start writing your paper: Make sure of the paper size. 5, , known as Letter in most word processors. Set the margin size on all sides to 2.54 cm. Change the line spacing to double spaced. Add page numbers to the upper right corner of each page. Cite images viewed online. For online images, provide the name of the site you found them on and a URL. Link directly to the image when possible, as it may be difficult to locate from the other information provided. APA format. Last name, initials. Year Image title, format Site name. APA style requires that brackets directly surround their content without spaces, for example bracketed content should look like this. Where possible, include the year, month and date in references. If the month and date are not available, use the year of publication. Additionally, editing no longer requires the use of "Recovered."