APA 7 for Health Sciences Research

Direct Quotes

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations 

Quotes are when you use another person's words, word for word, in your paper. Whenever you use a quote in your writing, you will need to include quotation marks around the quote, along with an in-text citation. If your citation appears at the end of the sentence, put your punctuation after the citation. 

Here are a few examples of how you can use a quote within a sentence:

• This means that, "If an entrepreneur’s true intention is simply to make change happen, then sharing credit will come naturally” (Bornstein, 2004, p. 235).
• As Bornstein (2004) notes, "If an entrepreneur’s true intention is simply to make change happen, then sharing credit will come naturally” (p. 235).

Paraphrasing

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/paraphrasing 

Paraphrasing is when you summarize someone else's research in your own words. Rather than using the original resource's wording, you are synthesizing this information and phrasing this in your own voice. Even though there is not a direct quote, you still need to cite when you paraphrase, as you are referencing another's work. Page numbers are not necessary when paraphrasing, though if you are wanting to direct readers to a certain section, you may include page numbers. 

Here is an example of a quote from the original source:

"Sixty 4- and 5-year-olds were shown a box-shaped toy that played music and lit up when beads were placed on it. Crucially, some of the children were shown that each of four beads, placed one at a time on the toy, activated it. This was the “unambiguous condition” that implied any old bead is capable of activating the toy. Other children were in an “ambiguous condition”: they were shown, by placing beads one at a time on the box, that two of the beads activated it, but two of them didn’t." 

... and this is an example of that block of text paraphrased (in my words):

Jarrett (2004) describes a study involving sixty four to five year old children, who were shown a toy that played music and lit up when engaged; while some of the children were presented with an "ambiguous condition," where the toy would become activated after placing four random beads on top of it, other students were given toys that could only be activated by two specific beads (an "unambiguous condition").

Narrative versus Parenthetical Citations

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/basic-principles/parenthetical-versus-narrative 

When you are writing your sentence, you can choose to cite in a narrative or in a parenthetical format.

Parenthetical citations are when you include the citation information in parentheses; the citation should include the author name and the year of publication. If your citation includes a page number, you will include that as well. For example:

• This means that, "If an entrepreneur’s true intention is simply to make change happen, then sharing credit will come naturally” (Bornstein, 2004, p. 235).
• Falsely balanced news coverage can distort the public’s perception of expert consensus on an issue (Koehler, 2016).

Narrative format is when the author information is written as part of the sentence. For example: 

• As Bornstein (2004) notes, "If an entrepreneur’s true intention is simply to make change happen, then sharing credit will come naturally” (p. 235).
• In 2016, Koehler noted the dangers of falsely balanced news coverage.

You can see in this narrative citation, the author is part of the sentence. When you include the author as part of the sentence, you don't need to duplicate their name in the parenthetical citation. You still need to make sure that the year and page number (if necessary) are cited, but you don't need to replicate this information.

Tips to Prevent Plagiarism

Don't copy and paste.

Even if you think you'll go back and change this in the future, you are setting yourself up to accidentally plagiarize. 

Don't just use synonyms

Paraphrasing means writing in YOUR OWN STYLE. We all have unique voices -- the words we choose and how we formulate sentences -- and just swapping words out of the sentence is not writing in your own style. In order to write in your own words, you will need to truly understand what it is that you are trying to say. So if you are having a hard time, pause and give yourself a moment to think about the main idea and context for what you are trying to convey.