Adding References to Your Paper: Three Common Types and Alphabetical Order

To cite the work of others, you add a reference to that work on the references page at the end of your paper.

That page should already be set up and ready to go. If you need a refresher on how it looks, jump back to the references page lesson.

Why references get complicated

This is where the APA format starts to get a little complex.

The APA manual has formatting rules for more than a hundred types of references. Within each type there are more variations, depending on things like:

• The number of authors
• The edition or version
• Whether it's in print or online
• Even the kind of page numbering it uses

It's a lot, and memorizing all of those rules isn't worth your time.

The three types most papers use

Instead of trying to cover every possibility, the next three lessons walk through the three most common reference types you'll use in your papers:

• A book with one author
• A journal article with more than one author
• A webpage

Once you know how these are built, you'll be much more confident putting together your references page. For anything more complex, even APA experts reach for the manual, or let a formatting tool like PERRLA do the heavy lifting.

Keeping the list in alphabetical order

One last thing before we dive in. As you add references, keep them in alphabetical order by the first word of each reference. Usually, that's the first author's last name.

If two references start with the same last name, look at the next word to decide the order. Say you have references by three authors:

• Michael Jacobs
• John Jacobs
• Inigo Montoya

The two Jacobs references come first and Montoya comes last. Because both of the first two start with "Jacobs," you look at the second word in each reference, the first initial. John comes before Michael, so the correct order is:

1. Jacobs, J. (John Jacobs)
2. Jacobs, M. (Michael Jacobs)
3. Montoya, I. (Inigo Montoya)

When a work has no author, alphabetize it by the first significant word of its title, skipping A, An, and The.

Alphabetical order on a real page

Here are the first four entries on the sample paper's references page. A group author, like a government body or an organization, is alphabetized by its own first word.

1. The first author's last nameBuhs comes first because B comes first.
2. Group authors by their first wordThe Federal Bureau of Investigation files under F.

Then the next letter. When two entries start with the same letter, the second letter decides, then the third.

Quick checklist

• Author, date, title, and source details gathered
• The right reference type chosen
• Entry formatted to that type's rules
• Added with double spacing and a half-inch hanging indent
• Alphabetical order confirmed
• DOIs and URLs written as links, with no period at the end

How PERRLA handles references

PERRLA takes care of this whole workflow. It helps you find a source's details, builds and formats the reference, and keeps your references page in order from the first entry to the last. It knows the rules for every type of APA reference, so the fine print isn't your job.

Related APA 101 lessons

• The references page: alphabetical order, hanging indents, and the References label.
• Formatting a book reference: author, year, italic title, and publisher.
• Formatting a journal article reference: volume, issue, page range, and the DOI.
• Formatting a webpage reference: dates, website names, retrieval dates, and pages with no author.
• All 18 lessons in APA 101