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Wednesday 9 March 2022

APA web referencing

I had a student ask me about how to reference an article from an education website. They were worried about being able to find a date, and being able to work out who the author was.

Confession time: I am not too purist about these things. I tend go with what makes most sense, and what is easiest for the reader to assimilate. However, I felt that there were two ways that the student could legitimately go:

  1. Use the "no author" news story format

    What are the career opportunities for Bachelor of Sport and Recreation graduates? (n.d.). https://www.aut.ac.nz/parents-hub/employability/what-are-the-career-opportunities-for-bachelor-of-sport-and-recreation-graduates

  2. Or assume that the author is AUT, and the date is when we access the site:

    AUT. (2021). What are the career opportunities for Bachelor of Sport and Recreation graduates? https://www.aut.ac.nz/parents-hub/employability/what-are-the-career-opportunities-for-bachelor-of-sport-and-recreation-graduates
Neither of these options are technically incorrect. The site is not a newspaper, so we are not compelled to reference the page in the first option manner.

I think we need to decide which way will work best - most sensible and easiest to assimilate - and then CONSISTENTLY do that for all similar entries.

However, there is another consideration which would make me lean towards the second option. That is what the source looks like when I in text cite it.

  1. the "no author" news story format

    (What are the career opportunities for Bachelor of Sport and Recreation graduates?, n.d.).

  2. The AUT author, current year:

    (AUT, 2021).
You can see why I think that the second option (AUT, 2021) is more user-friendly, and makes it easier for the reader.

Let's go with sense and ease of assimilation.


Sam

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