Sometimes you may want to quote directly from a source that has no page numbers, such as a webpage. You will then have to direct the reader to the quoted text in a different way. Alternative locators you can use are headings, sections, and paragraphs.
For each source, choose the locator that will best help readers find the passage.
- A heading or section name
Capitalize the first word of the heading or section name and all major words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns), and words with four letters or more (including “Between,” “About,” “From,” “With”).
One of his observations is that “people don’t rise from nothing” (Lewis, 2020, Facts About Social Mobility).
Use an abbreviated heading or section name (in double quotation marks) if the heading or section name is long.
The study revealed that “children whose parents smoke are twice as likely to smoke as children of nonsmokers” (Conron & Janssen, 2019, “Childhood Smoking”).
The original heading is: Childhood Smoking as an Independent Risk Factor for Addiction to Tobacco.
- A paragraph number
Use the abbreviation “para.”. Count the paragraphs yourself when they are not numbered.
A sleep disorder is “a condition that frequently impacts the ability to get enough quality sleep” (Wu, 2021, para. 3).
- A heading or section name plus a paragraph number
Hu (2021) noted that “workplace bullying does not occur in a vacuum” (Practical Approaches to Bullying, para. 4).
