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APA Referencing

Personal communications

 

 

A citation for a personal communication is inserted into your text giving:

  • the name of the person from whom you received the communication (if this does not occur naturally in your text), as initial followed by surname, as in J. Smith
  • the words "personal communication" (in APA style the medium, e.g. letter, e-mail etc. is not given); and the day, month and year that the communication took place.

 

For example:

(C. Brown, personal communication, June 27, 2018)

or, if the name occurs naturally in your text,

C. Brown (personal communication, June 27, 2018) has suggested that…

A page reference is not required, even when quoting directly.

 

NB. In APA format, personal communications are NOT included in your reference list/bibliography at the end of your work. This is because they cannot be recovered by a reader of your work.