Citations while writing a summary

Question

My professor has me doing a paper that will be a summary of five different sources covering a specific mental disorder. Will I need to use citations from the information I am summarizing or will I just need to write the summarization in my own words and cite the resources at the end? I know I will not be using any direct quotations, however, I am unsure if I am to use citations as I summarize the information throughout all of the sources. I hope this makes sense! Thank you to anyone who is willing to help me answer this!

Also- when summarizing my sources, if more than one source say the same thing do I cite all of the sources that are stating the same information? Example: According to Greene (2002); Gryphin (1997); and June (2020), the symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder include oppositionality, vindictiveness, and hostile behavior.

Answer 1

I recommend that you pick up a copy of the APA Publication Manual from your university library and read the section on citations. That will answer all your questions and it provides a lot of illuminating examples.

Alternatively, the "APA Formatting and Style Guide" from Purdue University gives a brief introduction.

Personally, I prefer the APA Manual over all other resources. It is easy to read yet comprehensive. Questions that aren't answered in the Manual, are sometimes answered on the APA Style Blog.

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Very briefly:

If you follow APA style, you must give the author, year and page number for every quotation:

"Bla bla." (Ben, 2023, p. 5)

Same when you paraphrase:

Ben said something or other (2023, p. 5).

When you summarize something from multiple sources at once, list them all:

When the sun goes down it gets dark (Mom, 1986, pp. 15-88; Dad, 1997, p. 220973298).

When you paraphrase one source over several sentences or even a whole paragraph, cite the source in the first sentence. There is no need to cite the work again in this paragraph provided it is clear that this is the only source being paraphrased.

When your quote is longer than 40 words, indent it as a blockquote and omit the quotation marks:

Ben said:

Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. (Ben, 2023, p. 5)

Do not indent long paraphrases.

You musn't change anything in what you quote. Leave italics, citations, etc. as they appear in the original:

Ben wrote: "Bla bla: 'Bla bla bla.' (Mom, 1997, p. 8) Bla bla bla." (2023, p. 5)

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The APA Style Blog recommends:

It is best to paraphrase sources rather than directly quoting them because paraphrasing allows you to fit material to the context of your paper and writing style.

Use direct quotations rather than paraphrasing:

• when reproducing an exact definition (see Section 6.22 of the Publication Manual),
• when an author has said something memorably or succinctly, or
• when you want to respond to exact wording (e.g., something someone said).