How to cite in APA style easily using Microsoft Word
University students starting out their academic careers can sometimes struggle with problems such as learning how to cite APA on essay papers. This can be particularly difficult for first year students who are just learning how to cite in APA style.
In this document, I am going to show you how to cite in APA using Microsoft Word. It will initially take some time to learn but after using it a few times, I am certain you will get the hang of it. It can save you tons of time at the end of your papers where you must write the bibliography or the references page.
With just a click, Word can write your whole Bibliography for you.
Want to find out how to do this?
Read on.
Step-by-step Guide:
On your Microsoft Word screen click on the References Tab and then click on “Insert Citation”.
It should then take you to a screen where you can insert the author’s name and article or the book you are citing from.
When entering the author’s name, make sure you enter in the fields correctly, such as the author’s last name and what type of source it is.
Word will let you enter what type of source you are collecting from. Choose from the drop down selection, whether it be an article, book or a website online.
You will be able to cut the source to show only the year if needed, depending on how you want to cite the source in APA.
Here is what it looks like when entering all of the information into Word.
Example:
The citation in-text should look like this.
Repeat this for each source you provide that you wish to cite.
References page:
Once you have finished your paper, Word makes it very easy to input the bibliography or works cited page after you have entered all of your sources. Just simply go under the “References” tab and scroll over to the “Bibliography” drop-down, you can then choose for either a Works cited page or Bibliography page and then Word will create it for you.
This saves a great deal of time at the end of your paper and has personally saved me an immense amount of time when doing my references at the end of my papers that I have written.
It simply saves a tremendous amount of time compared to individually entering all of your previous sources as it automates the entire process.
If you have done it correctly, Word will have your entire References page completed for you, with all of the sources you have entered throughout your paper in alphabetical order.
I hope this guide has helped in learning how to use Microsoft Word to cite sources for your academic papers.
Happy researching!
