When carrying out educational works in writing, it is necessary to have external sources such as books, theses, among others. However, it is essential to make use of certain rules when citing these external sources to avoid plagiarism and respect copyright and intellectual property, so APA rules apply. In this article, you will learn how to cite a case study in APA using different types and formats of citations.

How to cite a case study in APA?

Citations, whether textual or paraphrased, make use of the author-date-page and author-date rule. The information that these quotes concentrate helps us determine the knowledge that derives from a particular reference and also shows us where we can find it.

According to APA standards, all citations made within content must be referenced in a list at the end of the body of work. Next, we will talk about how to quote in APA using two modalities: making textual quotes or paraphrased citations.

APA text quotes

The textual quotation informs us that a specific idea of ​​the body of work belongs to some writer or document. It is not to the person who has written the content object of reading, which helps to respect the copyright and intellectual property of the sources which have been taken as a reference for the development of said work.

Although its aim is to serve as a complement to support the ideas embodied in the research, it is important to use them appropriately to respect copyright and intellectual property.

When we talk about copyright, we mean a set of rules created to protect writers and owners of works, which give them the power to control everything related to the use or use of their work. While the intellectual property has to do with the recognition of the powers conferred on the authors of the documents.

There are two ways to make textual citations in APA, which vary depending on the emphasis on the text or the author.

Textual quote with emphasis on the author

In this case, the name of the author of the text is first stated and then the quotation is written in quotes, based on the following scheme: Author’s last name (year of publication) “appointment” (page number of the text where the information cited is found).

It is important to note that the quotation or fragment of text should be enclosed in quotation marks whenever its length is less than 40 words, but if it exceeds this limit, a point must be lowered to the size of the font used and use left indent to highlight.

Textual quote with emphasis on text

In this type of quotation, the fragment of the text to be quoted must appear in quotes before the author states, the year and the page where the information in question can be found. In this way, the following scheme must be followed: “fragment of text to quote” (Author’s last name, year and pagination).

When we talk about paraphrasing, we mean the action of using the ideas or premises of the owner of a text, but enunciating them with terms of the person who is developing the work.

Paraphrase citations that follow the APA standards must be made following the following parameters. The data must go after the text fragment to be paraphrased, and the author’s last name must appear in parentheses, followed by a comma and the year of publication.

If the idea that has been paraphrased has more than two authors with different documents and publications, it should be cited as follows: (Surname of the first author, year of publication.

If the ideas come from a text that does not have an author, the quotation must go as follows: parentheses are opened, quotation marks are opened. The first three or four words of the document are placed, quotation marks are closed and quotation marks are placed a comma followed by the year of publication.

Other types of APA appointments

However, to make citations of a web page whose author does not appear specified. The following scheme must be followed: parentheses are opened, quotation marks are opened, the first words of the consulted text are written. The quotation marks are closed and a comma is placed followed by the year of publication of the text.

If the year is not shown, it must be indicated that it has no date, adding of, which means “no date.” If it is a textual quotation, the number of the page or paragraph in which the piece of text to be cited must be added. Sometimes it may happen that the web pages do not have pagination, so you must go to the paragraph in which the appointment is written.

On the other hand, to quote or reference a law or some other document such as laws or decrees, the text fragment must be placed in quotation marks and finally reference the number of the law followed by the year. Then, another comma must be added and the year of publication of the work where the appointment is to be placed again.

In the event that the author of a book has cited the owner of some other document, the quotation must follow the following scheme: first, the last name of the cited author is placed. The textual quotation is added in quotes, and in brackets, it is written as the author of the book is cited, plus the year and the page where the text fragment is found.

An example would be: Cavassa mentions as “one of the negative consequences of the scientific organization, professional absenteeism due, in some cases, to occupational diseases” (as cited in Jardillier, 1969, para. 6). In this case, the paragraph number is placed, since the page is not stated in the text of the author Cavassa.

But if more than one document of the same author is being used where some of them share the same year of publication, the citations must be made by writing a lowercase letter at the end of the year, which will serve to differentiate the date of each of the publications.

For example, if Cavassa is cited and several of its works that were issued in 1996 are used, they must be specified following this format: Cavassa (1996a) or Cavassa (1996b) and so on.

APA appointment using Google Scholar

The Google Academic or School tool is very useful for students and for any person in general who wants to find academic documents, such as articles, thesis, books and summaries issued by varied and true sources such as universities and other academic institutions.

Among its many benefits, this search engine has a functionality that allows us to save time when quoting a text in APA:

When searching for Google Scholar, a list of entries that have a kind of summary is displayed. At the bottom of these, you can find a small tab with the word “Quote.” By clicking, we can access the reference of the article, book, summary, or thesis that is of our interest in three different regulations, where one of them corresponds to the APA style.

Well, to find an appointment in APA format with Google Scholar, we must follow the following procedure:

• Enter the Google Scholar platform.
• Make click on the tab “Quote” that appears at the bottom of each search result.
• Check the appointment, copy it and add it in the references of the body of work that is being prepared.

Although citations are a really useful resource to complement the information of a text or document, correctly making them is essential to respect the ideas that have been taken as a reference in the development of a new academic or research work.

Today you learned how to cite a case study in APA, which will allow you to avoid the imitation of content and ensure respect for copyright and intellectual property. Remember to keep abreast of updates that are made to APA standards.