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.