APA 7 Referencing for SUSS TMAs: Examples That Get It Right

Referencing is one of the few parts of a SUSS TMA where you can pick up marks just by being careful. SUSS’s Teaching and Learning Centre describes APA as the style most frequently used at SUSS, and many TMAs ask for APA 7th edition by name. Some programmes publish their own referencing guide, so always check your TMA instructions first. If they say APA 7, the examples below will keep you on track.

Does my SUSS TMA need APA 7 or another referencing style?

Look in three places before you start: the TMA question paper, your course guide on Canvas and any programme-specific referencing guide. If the TMA says “APA 7” or “APA 7th edition”, follow that exactly. If it names another style, use that instead. If it says nothing, ask your tutor rather than guess.

Many SUSS TMAs also give referencing its own mark in the rubric, and some deduct marks for missing or inaccurate citations. Even where referencing carries only a few marks, careless citations can make your tutor question the rest of your work, and missing citations can become an academic integrity problem.

How do I write APA 7 in-text citations in a SUSS TMA?

APA uses the author-date system. You give the author’s surname and the year in the text, and the full details go in the reference list. There are two ways to do this:

• Parenthetical: Workplace flexibility can improve retention (Lim, 2023).
• Narrative: Lim (2023) argues that workplace flexibility can improve retention.

The table below covers the cases that come up most often in TMAs.

Situation	Parenthetical	Narrative
One author	(Tan, 2022)	Tan (2022)
Two authors	(Lim & Ong, 2021)	Lim and Ong (2021)
Three or more authors	(Rahman et al., 2024)	Rahman et al. (2024)
Organisation as author, first use	(Ministry of Example Affairs [MEA], 2024)	Ministry of Example Affairs (MEA, 2024)
Organisation as author, later uses	(MEA, 2024)	MEA (2024)
No date	(Goh, n.d.)	Goh (n.d.)
Direct quotation	(Tan, 2022, p. 14)	Tan (2022) noted that “…” (p. 14).

Two points catch students out. First, use “&” inside brackets but “and” in running text. Second, in APA 7 you use “et al.” from the very first citation when a source has three or more authors. That rule changed from the 6th edition, so older guides on the internet may tell you otherwise.

How should I format the APA 7 reference list in my TMA?

Your reference list goes at the end of the TMA under the heading References, centred and bold. Then follow these rules:

• List every source you cited, and only those sources.
• Order entries alphabetically by the first author’s surname.
• Use a hanging indent of 0.5 inch and keep the list double-spaced if the rest of your TMA is.
• Use sentence case for article and book titles: capitalise only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns.
• Italicise book titles, and journal names together with volume numbers.
• Give DOIs as full links in the form https://doi.org/ followed by the number.
• Leave out the publisher’s location. APA 7 dropped it.

What do correct APA 7 reference entries look like?

These examples use made-up sources so you can focus on the pattern. Copy the punctuation exactly; most lost marks come from small slips such as a missing full stop or the wrong part in italics.

Book

Author, A. A. (2023). Title of the book in sentence case (2nd ed.). Publisher Name.

Chapter in an edited book

Author, B. B. (2022). Title of the chapter. In C. C. Editor (Ed.), Title of the edited book (pp. 45–67). Publisher Name.

Journal article with a DOI

Author, D. D., & Author, E. E. (2024). Title of the article. Journal Name, 12(3), 101–118. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx

Webpage from an organisation

Organisation Name. (2025, March 4). Title of the webpage. Site Name. URL

When the organisation and the site name are the same, leave the site name out.

Report from a government agency

Agency Name. (2024). Title of the report (Report No. 5). URL

Generative AI tool

APA updated its guidance on citing AI tools in 2025. When you cite the tool in general, the company is the author and the format follows the software pattern:

Company Name. (Year). Tool name [Large language model]. URL

APA now also allows you to cite a specific shared chat, and it suggests describing your prompts in the text rather than in the reference entry. Before citing any AI tool, check whether your course allows AI use at all and how SUSS wants it declared. Our guide on SUSS and OU rules on declaring ChatGPT use covers that side.

How do I cite SUSS study units, lecture slides or Canvas materials?

APA’s general principle is that you cite what your reader can retrieve. Your tutor has access to your course materials on Canvas, so many tutors accept citations to study units or slides. A common pattern is:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the study unit or slides [Study unit or PowerPoint slides]. Course code: Course title. Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Practice differs between programmes, though. Some tutors prefer that you cite the original book or article the course material is based on. If your course guide gives a format, use that. If not, ask your tutor once and apply the answer consistently across all your TMAs.

How do I handle Singaporean and Asian names in APA 7?

APA asks you to use the author’s surname followed by initials. With names that put the family name first, such as many Chinese and Korean names, students sometimes invert the wrong part. Check how the name appears on the source and, where possible, confirm the family name from the author’s profile or the publication itself.

• A name printed as “Tan Mei Ling”, where Tan is the family name, becomes Tan, M. L. in the reference list and (Tan, 2023) in text.
• For names without a family name, such as some Malay names that use a patronymic, use the name as it appears on the publication and stay consistent.

When you genuinely cannot tell, follow the order printed on the source rather than guessing.

Citing a source you found inside another source

Sometimes your textbook or study unit mentions a study you have not read yourself. APA calls this a secondary source. Name the original work in your sentence and cite the source you actually read, using “as cited in”: Ng’s study (2015, as cited in Lim, 2023) found that… Only Lim (2023) goes in your reference list, because that is the work you read. APA recommends using secondary sources sparingly, so where the original is easy to find through the SUSS Library, read and cite it directly.

Which APA 7 mistakes do SUSS tutors often mark down?

Run through this checklist before you submit:

1. Every in-text citation has a matching reference list entry, and the spellings and years match.
2. No sources appear in the reference list that you did not cite.
3. Direct quotations have page numbers, or paragraph numbers for sources without pages.
4. “Et al.” is used for three or more authors from the first citation.
5. Titles use sentence case, and italics are in the right place.
6. DOIs are formatted as links starting https://doi.org/.
7. The reference list is alphabetical with hanging indents.
8. You have paraphrased in your own words and used quotations sparingly.
9. You know whether in-text citations count towards your word limit. On many SUSS TMAs they do, while the reference list does not, but check your own TMA instructions.

If you also study with the Open University, note that most OU modules use a different style. Our guide to Cite Them Right Harvard for OU assignments shows the differences.

Who can check the APA 7 referencing in my SUSS TMA before I submit?

Start with the SUSS Library and the Teaching and Learning Centre, which run citation guidance and workshops. If you would like a tutor to look over your draft, we can check your citations and reference list against APA 7, point out inconsistencies and explain the fixes so you can make them yourself. Find out more about our tutor support for SUSS students or send your draft through our TMA draft check. The work and the final submission stay yours, and you should always follow SUSS’s academic integrity rules.