You've just read a fantastic article in your local paper, or perhaps a compelling piece online, and now you need to cite it for your research paper. It's a common hurdle, and honestly, it can feel a bit like deciphering a secret code at first. But don't worry, it's more about following a clear blueprint than anything else.
When you're working with the APA (American Psychological Association) style, the goal is always clarity and consistency. For newspaper articles, whether you found them tucked away in print or scrolling through them on your screen, the core pieces of information you'll need are pretty standard. Think of it like gathering ingredients for a recipe: you need the author's name, the date it was published, the title of the article itself, the name of the newspaper, and then, depending on how you accessed it, either the page numbers or a URL.
Let's break down how this looks in practice, drawing from the 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual, which is the current standard.
Citing Print Newspaper Articles
If you're holding a physical copy of the newspaper, the reference list entry will look something like this:
Author Surname, First Initial. (Year, Month Day Published). Article title. Newspaper Name, p. #.
For example, if you found an article by T. Lapin published on December 2, 2020, titled "Yet..." (we'll assume the rest of the title for this example), and it appeared on page 2, your entry might start:
Lapin, T. (2020, December 2). Yet...
Now, for the in-text citation – that's what you'll use within your writing to point readers to the full reference. It's usually quite brief. You can either use a narrative style, like:
Lapin (2020)
Or a parenthetical style:
(Lapin, 2020)
If the article spans multiple pages, you'd include the page range, often like 'pp. 2-3' or if it's spread out, 'pp. 2+'.
Citing Online Newspaper Articles
This is where most of us find ourselves these days. The process is very similar, but instead of page numbers, you'll provide a URL.
The reference list entry template looks like this:
Author Surname, First Initial. (Year, Month Day Published). Article title. Newspaper Name. URL
So, if Sharon LaFraniere and Noah Weiland wrote an article on March 26, 2021, for The New York Times, titled "For Biden, a new virus dilemma: How to handle a looming glut of vaccine," and you accessed it online, your reference would be:
LaFraniere, S., & Weiland, N. (2021, March 26). For Biden, a new virus dilemma: How to handle a looming glut of vaccine. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/us/biden-coronavirus-vaccine.html
Notice how the newspaper name is italicized, and the article title uses sentence-style capitalization (only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized). The in-text citation remains straightforward:
(LaFraniere & Weiland, 2021)
Or, in a narrative format:
LaFraniere and Weiland (2021) discussed...
A Few Extra Tips
It's worth remembering that if the newspaper is local and might be confused with another publication of the same name, you might need to add a clarification in square brackets in the reference list entry. Also, if an article doesn't have a clear author, you'd start the citation with the article title, followed by the publication date.
Ultimately, citing newspaper articles in APA style is about accurately capturing the essential details of the source. It might seem a bit fiddly at first, but once you get the hang of the format, it becomes second nature. Think of it as giving credit where credit is due, and helping your readers find the exact information you found so valuable.
