Research students often take field trips to various institutions to collect information for their papers and often come back with a brochure. However, often they don’t have any idea how to use the important information on the paper and cite them accurately. If you are investigating social science papers and want to know how to cite a brochure in APA format, read this blog. Here we have resolved all your queries related to APA citation for brochures.
What is a Brochure?
Unless you know the concept of a brochure it is impossible to retain information on “how to cite a brochure in APA format?” A brochure is a corporate marketing document mainly used to advertise a company, organization, products, or services and notify prospective customers of the benefits of using it. You can fold that into a template, pamphlet, or leaflet. Usually, a brochure looks like a magazine. However, it has a different content. For example, it includes a summary of the product or service advertised along with its images.
A brochure is distributed in multiple primary ways. It includes sending brochures by mail, newspaper inserts, personal handouts, and displays in high racks in high-traffic locations.
Different Types of Brochures
Brochures are typically available in 5 different types. It includes:
e-brochure
This is the most common type of brochure available across the globe. It is found in electronic formats and consists of a piece of information or promotional content published online. Most B2C and B2B brands develop e-brochures to pass on their information about their organization, product, or services.
Bi-fold brochure
It is a type of offline single-sheet brochure where both sides of a sheet are printed and folded in half. The folded page displays, promotes, and shares images and information about a company, its service, or an event. Brochures available in electronic format are called e-brochures. This format has the added benefit of unlimited distribution and cost savings compared to traditional paper brochures.
Tri-fold brochure
It is another common brochure that is found everywhere. A tri-fold brochure comes in three-fold. Hence it leaves enough space for the designer to display more information and images to make it interesting to the reader.
Z-fold brochure
Popularly known as accord fold, Z-fold brochures serve multiple purposes and are used for the versatility they provide. For example, designers can separate information and stop it from overcrowding the document. Additionally, they can make use of the same-sized panels to compartmentalize the data contained in them.
Gate fold brochure
This brochure type has two panels on the front which opens like gates to an internal panel. A gate-fold brochure is primarily designed to advertise a single product or for graphics-heavy design.
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Ultimate Purpose of a Brochure
The main aim of a brochure is to extend the reader’s acquaintance on one specific subject in which the brochure is developed. Moreover, it also
- Grab the target audience’s eyes at first glance with its astoundingly beautiful visual design.
- Endorses your products, agency, or service sensitively.
- Develops trust between you and your probable clients.
- Cost-effectively advertises products or services compared to that of publicizing on TV or in newspapers.
- Offers a physical, demonstrative, and subtle instrument to advertise products and services.
You might ask why you must choose brochures over other methods of advertisement. The answer lies in the fact that a brochure is one of the best modes of marketing that can easily offer speedy results by augmenting the influence of your business and conversion rates. The following are some of the reasons why a brochure is useful:
- It is a budget-friendly method of promotion.
- Readers can easily understand it because of the lucid language used to create awareness about the advertised subject
- An impressive method to reach the audience
- Offer a consistent form of branding
- Offer solid references for future products and services presented by a company.
Requirements of Citing a Brochure
When you want to learn how to cite a brochure in APA format, firstly track down the following details about the brochure:
- Author of the brochure: The author can be an individual, individual, group, or organization.
- Brochure title
- The date on which the brochure was published
- The publisher of the brochure
- URL of the website on which you found the brochure: only required if the brochure is found on the web.
- The name of the city where the publisher of the brochure publisher is located.
What Is APA Citation Style?
A clear idea of the concept of APA citation helps to understand how to cite a brochure in APA format. The APA citation style is the method of citation followed by the American Psychological Association. This style is mainly abided by social science researchers for citing and formatting papers using the guidelines mentioned by the American Psychological Association. When you talk about APA style, you indicate the rules based on which a research paper is formatted. APA offers precise guidelines for nearly all aspects of manuscript formatting, from font choice to margins and punctuation. Typically, APA citation style is used in social science and related fields that also include psychology, education, economics, criminology, political science, sociology, business, and pedagogy.
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Why Should You Use APA Citation Style?
Though most often you don’t get a chance to select the citation style you prefer to use. However, sometimes you have a choice. For example, if you want to cite a brochure, you can use MLA or APA depending on the perspective of use you mention in the research paper. Here are the reasons for citing your brochure in APA format.
Includes precise citation rules
APA citation style is one of the few citation styles that include precise citation and formatting rules for every aspect of developing a research paper. If you can use them properly, it will save your paper from being tagged as plagiarized. Additionally, your readers will know the source from which you received the information.
Makes papers easy to read
An APA citation guideline provides writing rules and styles that are easy to read and have all the necessary elements that increase readability. It offers clarity of expression, standardization of the arrangement and formatting of manuscript content to promote scientific communication
How to Cite a Brochure in APA Format?
You can cite a brochure accessed online or offline in APA format using two ways:
In-text citation: Here you should use an author-date format to cite the passage or quote borrowed from a brochure.
It usually includes the following:
- Author: Name of an author or the organization that publishes it
- Year: The year in which the brochure was published. It is usually found on the first or last page of the brochure.
Reference: It includes detailed information about the source of the brochure. Apart from the name of the author and the year of publishing, it also includes:
- Title of the brochure: It is usually written in italics and mentioned for both online and offline brochure titles.
- Publisher: Write the name of the publisher. However, you must omit it if the publisher is the author of the brochure.
- URL: Attach the URL of the brochures availed through the internet.
How To Cite A Brochure In APA Format Accessed Offline?
If you get a brochure with a newspaper or in the survey cites you can cite it in your research paper help by developing it in the following format.
The structure of in-text citation:
(Name of the Author/Organization, Year of publishing)
Example:
(American Heart Research Society, 2021)
Structure of references:
Name of the Author/Organization. (Year of publishing). Title of the brochure [Brochure]. Name of the publisher.
Example:
American Heart Research Society. (2021). Early detection of heart attack [Brochure]
How To Cite A Brochure In APA Format Accessed Online?
If you access a brochure online and want to use it in your paper, develop your citation with the following structure.
The structure of the in-text citation:
(Name of the Author, Year of publishing)
Example:
(American Heart Research Society, 2021)
Structure of references:
Name of the author/ organization. (Year of publishing). Title of the brochure[Brochure ]. Name of the publisher. URL
Example:
American Heart Research Society. (2021). Early detection of heart attack
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Conclusion
Hopefully, the discussion above clears all your queries on how to cite a brochure in APA format. You may use the same method to cite pamphlets in APA format as well. In that case, write the word pamphlet in place of the brochure in the reference. Additionally, to be certain of the accuracy of the format of citation consult your professor before using it. Sometimes, professors or universities mandate additional elements to be included in the citation.
