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APA Reference Guide: Personal Communication

APA Reference Guide 7th Edition to correctly acknowledge sources of information in your work and assessments

Personal Communication

                   Personal Communication

Personal Communication

 Note: Personal communication involves any source that has been added to your assignment that cannot be retrieved by your teacher or marker.
 

Personal communication includes:

  • emails
  • text messages
  • online chats or direct messages
  • personal conversational interviews
  • telephone conversations
  • live speeches
  • unrecorded classroom lectures
  • memos
  • letters
  • messages from non-archived discussion groups or online bulletin boards
  • Traditional Knowledge or Oral Traditions of Indigenous Peoples - not recorded (see entry below)
     

 Note: Personal communications do not require a reference list entry. In-text citation is required only.

 

Format In-Text Citation Only (No reference list entry is required)
Personal Communication

Person conducting the communication's Initial, Surname (personal communication, Month Date, Year)

E. M. Paradis (personal communication, August 8, 2019)

OR

(Person conducting the communication's Initial, Surname, personal communication, Month Date, Year)

(E. M. Paradis, personal communication, August 8, 2019)
 

Note: provide as exact a date as possible. If any aspects of the date are not known, leave them out.

Personal Communications of Traditional Knowledge or Oral Traditions of Indigenous Peoples - not recorded

 

(for communications recorded, use the usual reference guidelines for the specific format eg: YouTube, Book, etc)

Provide the person’s full name and the nation or specific Indigenous group to which they belong, as well as their location or other details about them as relevant, followed by the words “personal communication,” and the date of the communication.
 

Initial. Surname (Country/Nation, Language group, Place of Nation/Country, personal communication, Month Day, Year)

 

E. Timbery (Bidjial/Eora, La Perouse, NSW, Australia, personal communication, April 23, 2015)

 

Example:

We spoke with Esme Timbery (Bidjial/Eora, La Perouse, NSW, Australia, personal communication, April 23, 2015) about her incredible artworks...

Note: Before sharing Indigenous communication, please consider that is appropriate to do so. Contact Library staff or the Aboriginal Studies Coordinator before citing works if you have any concerns.