A Stylish Guide to Holiday Viewing

 

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

Winter Storm Draco is currently bringing a better-than-average chance of a white Christmas to the Midwest. Although it’s not slated to affect us here at APA Style HQ, I sort of envy you folks in Des Moines and Milwaukee—there’s nothing better on a snowy night than curling up with a warm drink and watching some holiday TV.

With that in mind, here are a few examples of how to cite the can’t-miss fare that’s streaming across the airwaves this weekend. Grab a seat by the fire and pass the cocoa!

Burton, T. (Producer), & Selick, H. (Director). (1993). The nightmare before Christmas [Motion picture]. United States: Touchstone. Roman, P. (Producer & Director). (2000). Grandma got run over by a reindeer [Television special]. Atlanta, GA: Cartoon Network. Sager, T. (Writer), & Scardino, D. (Director). (2007). Ludachristmas [Television series episode]. In T. Fey (Executive producer), 30 Rock. New York, NY: National Broadcasting Company. Smith, G. (Executive producer), Hemion, D. (Executive producer), & Binder, S. (Director). (1978). The Star Wars holiday special [Television special]. New York, NY: CBS Broadcasting. Stem, J. D. (Writer), Weiss, D. (Writer), & Muzquiz, R. (Director). (1996). Chanukah [Television series episode]. In V. Coffey, G. Csupo, & A. Klasky (Executive producers), Rugrats. New York, NY: Nickelodeon.

 

The APA Style staff enjoys a warm beverage before our annual viewing of the Star Wars Holiday Special

Still feeling a bit "Bah, humbug!"-ish? Check out our APA Style holiday playlist: certified to banish dull care by the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Future (and you know how grumpy he is). We’ll be back in January. Happy holidays from APA Style!

Note: Example 1 has been edited to include the country of origin, as recommended on page 209 of the Publication Manual. Examples 4 and 5 have been edited to clarify the roles of each contributor (10/12/16).

How to Cite Different Groups of Authors With the Same Lead Author and Publication Date

 

 

by Tyler Krupa

What’s in a name? Properly citing different groups of authors with the same lead author and publication date can make a big difference. When you have two or more references of more than three surnames with the same year and they shorten to the same form (e.g., both Smith, Jones, Young, Brown, & Stanley, 2001, and Smith, Jones, Ward, Lee, & Stanley, 2001, shorten to Smith et al., 2001), clarify which one you are citing each time. On the second and all subsequent citations, cite the surnames of the first two authors and of as many of the next authors as necessary to distinguish the two references, followed by a comma and et al. (see the sixth edition of the Publication Manual, p. 175).

Smith, Jones, Young, et al., 2001 Smith, Jones, Ward, et al., 2001

Are you tempted to use an a or b to designate which is which? This is a common error—placing lowercase letters (a, b, c, etc.) after the publication date instead of citing the necessary surnames. Lowercase letters are used after the publication date only for references with the same author (or with the same two or more authors in the same order) with the same publication date (in which case the references are arranged alphabetically by title; see p. 182 in the Publication Manual). So, using a or b is not appropriate when you have different groups of authors with the same lead author and publication date. Here are some examples that show the correct and incorrect ways to format these types of references in your reference list and in your text citations:

Correct: McGregor, I., Nash, K., Mann, N., & Phills, C. E. (2010). Anxious uncertainty and reactive approach motivation (RAM). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 133–147. doi:10.1037/a0019701 McGregor, I., Nash, K., & Prentice, M. (2010). Reactive approach motivation (RAM) for religion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 148–161. doi:10.1037/a0019702 Incorrect: McGregor, I., Nash, K., Mann, N., & Phills, C. E. (2010a). Anxious uncertainty and reactive approach motivation (RAM). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 133–147. doi:10.1037/a0019701 McGregor, I., Nash, K., & Prentice, M. (2010b). Reactive approach motivation (RAM) for religion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 148–161. doi:10.1037/a0019702

In the examples above, the authors are not the same, and therefore a and b should not be used after the publication date.

When citing these references in the text, cite the necessary number of surnames to distinguish between the references. In these two references, this distinction is not reached until the third author. Here’s how these reference should be cited in text:

Correct: First citations: (McGregor, Nash, Mann, & Phills, 2010) (McGregor, Nash, & Prentice, 2010) Second and subsequent citations: (McGregor, Nash, Mann, & Phills, 2010) (McGregor, Nash, & Prentice, 2010) Incorrect: First citations: (McGregor, Nash, Mann, & Phills, 2010a) (McGregor, Nash, & Prentice, 2010b) Second and subsequent citations: (McGregor et al., 2010a) (McGregor et al., 2010b)

Note that in the first reference example above, you should use the four surnames “McGregor, Nash, Mann, and Phills” instead of “McGregor, Nash, Mann, et al.” in the second and subsequent citations. The reason for this is that et al. means “and others,” so if there is just one more surname remaining after distinguishing between the two references, just list the final name instead of using et al. (For more examples on how to correctly use et al., see a recent post to our blog.)

Now you know how to properly cite different groups of authors with the same lead author and publication date. Questions? Leave us a comment.

Citing Translated Sources in APA Style

 

 

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

Dear Style Experts,

For my paper, I’m using several sources that I read in foreign languages. Some of my other sources were originally written in foreign languages, but I read them in an English translation. How should I cite these works?
--Polly Glodt

Dear Polly,

For foreign or translated works, a reference follows the basic APA Style templates, but you may need to add some additional information to get your reader to the source you used.

For example, here’s how you would cite the original French edition of a work by Piaget (note that an English translation of the title is included in brackets):

Piaget, J. (1966). La psychologie de l’enfant [The psychology of the child]. Paris, France: Presses Universitaires de France.

 

Here’s another example, from a German journal. Again, brackets contain an English translation of the work’s title (the article, not the journal).

Janzen, G., & Hawlik, M. (2005). Orientierung im Raum: Befunde zu Entscheidungspunkten [Orientation in space: Findings about decision points]. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 213(4), 179–186. doi:10.1026/0044-3409.213.4.179

You may have noticed that the capitalization of the article’s title is a bit unusual. That’s because in German, nouns are always capitalized. Since the capitalization carries grammatical weight (much like the capitalization of proper nouns in English), it’s preserved in the reference list.

If you read an English translation of a foreign work, the author, title, and so forth come from the version you read, with a nod to the translator:

Piaget, J. (1969). The psychology of the child (H. Weaver, Trans.). New York, NY: Basic Books.

A Note About Foreign Alphabets
If you are citing a work written in a non-Latin script (e.g., Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Russian), the reference must be transliterated into the English alphabet. See "Apples to תפ׀חים" for more on this topic.