Research Guides: Sociology: In-Text Citations

Formatting In-Text Citations in ASA

ASA uses parenthetical citations in text, with a complete list of references included at the end of the paper.

General Format of In-Text Citation

(Lastname Year)

Example: (Foucault 1978)

If the author's name is in the text, follow it with the publication year in parenthesis:

... Giddens (1991) argues that ...

If including pagination in the citation, put it after the year of publication, following a colon:

... Orol (2010:1).

Page numbers should be included for direct quotes or references to specific passages.

Give both last names for joint authors:

... (Danziger and Ratner 2010).

If there are three authors, cite all last names the first time and use et al. in subsequent citations:

... young people themselves (Shanahan, Porfeli, and Mortimer 2005).

Later: ... (Mortimer et al. 2005).

If there are more than three authors, use et al. for all citations:

... (Armstrong et al. 2014).