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APA Citation Style Guide

This guide will support you in creating common citation formats in the APA (American Psychological Association) Style - 7th edition.

Quick tips

Personal communications refer to sources of information that cannot be recovered by the reader such as a book, article, video etc.

Examples of Personal Communications:

  • emails
  • text messages
  • online or direct message conversations
  • personal interviews
  • telephone conversations
  • live speeches
  • unrecorded classroom lectures
  • memos
  • letters
  • unarchived online discussion groups or bulletin boards
  • unrecorded webinars

Citing Personal Communications In-Text:

"Because readers cannot retrieve the information in personal communications, personal communication are not included in the reference list: they are cited in the text only. Give the initial(s) and surname of the communicator, and provide as exact a date as possible" (APA, 2020, p. 260).

Personal communication in-text

Parenthetical in-text citation: (G. Grinnell, personal communication, September 18, 2019)

Narrative in-text citation: G. Grinnell (personal communication, September 18, 2019)

(APA, 2020, p. 260)