Ask OASISNontraditional Sources: Chapter in an Edited Book
Last updated 5/6/2020
Visual: Screen opens to a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The title Walden University Writing Center and tagline “Your writing, grammar, and APA experts” appears on the screen. The screen changes to show the series title “Nontraditional Sources” and the video title “Chapter in an Edited Book.”
Audio: Guitar music
Visual: Slide changes to one titled “Chapter in an Edited Book.” Body text reads as follows:
Lunsford, A. (2011). Collaboration, control, and the idea of a writing center. In C. Murphy & S. Sherwood (Eds.), The St. Martin’s sourcebook for writing tutors (4th ed., pp. 14-36). Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Publication element:
- Always include the publisher
- Include a DOI if available
Audio: In your writing, you might find yourself using a book as a source that has different authors for each chapter and was edited together as a whole book. In this case, you have editors of the book as a whole, but separate authors of individual chapters, and you want to make sure you appropriately give credit to both the authors of the chapter you used and the editors of the entire book.
Note that what we’re talking about here doesn’t apply to books that have the same author throughout; in that case, you’ll create your reference entry following the traditional book format, citing the entire book, not just one chapter.
So, if you do have a book where each chapter has a different author, and you want to cite a particular chapter, you’ll start by including the author of the chapter itself in the reference entry’s author element. You’ll follow with the book’s publication year, and then include the chapter’s title. Note that this title is in sentence case but not italicized. You then follow with the information for the book as the whole: the editor or editors and the book title, in sentence case and italicized. After the title, include any additional details about the book, like a volume or edition number and the page range for the chapter you are citing. Finally, you’ll include the publisher and, if available, a DOI number. Not all books have a DOI number, but if your’s does, be sure to include it here.
Visual: The slide changes to add the following citation: (Lunsford, 2011)
Audio: Then, the final step is to cite the source in the body of your paper. To do so, you’ll pull the author of the chapter and the book’s year, which in this example means citing it simply as “Lunsford, 2011.” This citation will point the reader to the reference entry we just created in your reference list. And that’s, it: that’s how to cite a chapter in an edited book!
Visual: The screen changes to an ending slide a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The email address writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu appears on the screen.