This guide follows the APA style for documenting sources within the body of your paper.  This kind of documentation is called "in-text" citations.  For more guidelines, see the list of APA and MLA and other research guidelines online.

Use parenthetical citations (reference information between parentheses) for information that is someone's opinion (generally an expert opinion) and is not common knowledge. 

Use parenthetical citation information for quotations and paraphrases. 

Include page number for direct quotes. (In MLA you include the page numbers for all sources, quoted or paraphrased.) 

Include the date in APA in-text citations: 

Examples:

As Smith (1993) stated, "magazines for the general public generally have less reliable evidence than scholarly or professional journals" (p. 2). 

OR 

As Smith said, "magazines for the general public generally have less reliable information than scholarly or professional journals" (1993, p. 2). 

Paraphrased version: Magazines written for a lay audience tend to have less objective information than that found in scholarly publications (Smith, 1993). 

NOTE: In APA style, there are no quotation marks for a paraphrase. Paraphrasing means restating in your own words the original author's EXACT meaning - not just rearranging words in the author's original text. You can embed a short quote of a key phrase in paraphrased material and give the page number of the quote. 

It is poor form to begin a paragraph or a sentence with a quotation.  This method causes the source to speak for you,  instead of you using the source to back up a point you are making. For example, here is an example of poor form, which shows no input from the writer of the paper. He or she is just writing what the original author said, without trying to paraphrase the information or, at the very least setting up the quote in context: 

"The proliferation of multiple births in this country speaks to the need to formulate ethics guidelines to regulate the fertility clinics" (Jones, 1997, p. 82). 

An example of a more graceful form of setting up a quote is: 

Because of significant number of multiple births in the United States, Jones points out that this country needs to "formulate ethics guidelines to regulate the fertility clinics" (1997, p. 82-84). 

All sources in your research paper, like the examples above, are not only documented in the body of your paper, but must also be listed in the proper format on the Reference page. 

Use quotes judiciously. Use them only when paraphrasing will make the statement unclear or a kernel of an idea is so perfectly stated that trying to paraphrase in your own words will ruin the impact of the statement. 

Long quotes (over three or four lines) are indented 5 to 7 spaces.  Unlike, quotes within a paragaraph, indented quotes are not set off by quotation marks. The period "."comes before the parentheses in long quotes.