Cite An Online Brochure Properly Using Apa Style

We can be very thankful to the internet because nowadays, we can already access so much information online for free. We can do our research on the web and come up with our sources for our thesis, term papers, or dissertations. That is because private corporations, educational institutions, and medical research organizations publish many of their brochures online. These materials may not be products of brochure printing but they offer a wealth of information on a certain topic because normally, their contents are peer-reviewed.

If you are writing a paper for a social science or a communications class, then you will have to cite your online sources in the APA style. APA is short for the American Psychological Association. Using the APA format will enable you to credit your online source like you would a book or a magazine article; however, you will have to include some information that will indicate that it comes from an online source. Here are some guidelines to follow when preparing your online citations the APA way.

1. Identify the author of the publication. If the brochure was published by the American Cancer Society then you can credit them as the author. Write the name of the organization and put a period after it.

2. Look for the year of publication. This is important in research because that will determine the relevance of the information your provided. So after the name of the author, write the year in between parentheses and then put another period after the closing parenthesis. If you cannot find the year of publication then just write the letter n.d. or no date in between the parentheses and then put a period.

3. The title of the brochure. Write the title of the pamphlet in italics after the date. Capitalize only the first letter of the first word in the title. This is followed by the edition of the publication. So if it is the first edition, write 1st ed. in parentheses and put a period. You will realize as you move on with your search that there are titles with proper nouns, like names of people, schools, or organizations. You will have to capitalize the first letters of these proper nouns. If there are subtitles, then you must include them as well. Just capitalize the first letter of the first word unless of course there are also proper nouns in the subtitle.

4. Put the word Brochure in brackets after the edition.

5. If the brochure has indicated a specific writers name, then you will have to include it in the citation. First, write the last name, put a comma, and then the initial letter of the first name. Put a colon after the name without space and write the word Author. If you could not find the name of the author then you can simply omit it.

6. As this is an online source, this is the part where you inform people about it. After the author, write the date when you accessed the brochure for the first time. Then write the full URL of the source by copying the exact address as found on the navigation bar of your browser.

Most of the time nowadays you can already access online brochures and do not need to look at brochure printing products in order to find your sources. Thanks to the internet for that.