ENGR 101 APA Citation guide: Home

This guide is targeted to the ENGR 101 assignment but is a useful guide for all assignments that use the American Psychological Association (APA) style for citation formats.

This is a general guide to help you get started but it CANNOT cover all the different types of materials and sources you may encounter in your research.

Consult the CSULB Citing Information Sources guide for links to guides from other libraries.

The ultimate authority on this is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 7th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2020.
We have a copy at the University Library: 1st Floor Reference BF 76.7 .P83 2020 (additional locations)

Consult the reference librarian if you need assistance.

This guide was created by Hema Ramachandran, CSULB engineering librarian 2007-2025.

There is no general citation style that covers ALL the disciplines in engineering so the instructors in this course have chosen to use APA. You will most likely be using APA in some of your general education courses so this assignment will prepare you for other research papers. The golden rule: whatever style you use, make sure to follow the rules of that particular style and be consistent.

As you progress in the engineering program, you will use the style appropriate for your discipline. If you want a preview of the different citation styles for the engineering disciplines check out the guide from Lehigh University.

Citing or referencing your sources may seem laborious and boring - but it's very important. There are many important reasons to do it and to do it correctly:

1. It allows the reader of your paper (in this case your instructor) to identify the sources you used so they can find the item for themselves and perhaps use it for their own research.

2. A good scholarly research paper must give attribution or acknowledgement that you have used or have been influenced by the ideas, words and intellectual property of others.

3. It is one of the ways to help you avoid plagiarism, defined as:

   • Copying someone else's words without using quotation marks and citing the source;

   • Restating or summarizing someone else's original or specialized ideas without citing the source;

   • Pretending someone else's work is your own.

4. Adds credibility and authority to your work by demonstrating that you have taken the time to conduct research and have considered a variety of different opinions and angles on the topic.

5. You can also demonstrate which of the ideas you agree with, disagree with, while at the same time adding some of your own opinions and thoughts on the topic.

By the end of this semester, YOU will have mastered the principles of citing references correctly and be able to apply these skills to any research papers that you write in the future.