MLA
Start your Works Cited entry with the name of the person. Type the last name of the person you communicated with, followed by a comma, then their first name. Place a period at the end of their first name. Example: Hagrid, Rubeus.
Add a description of the subject of communication. The second element of your Works Cited entry normally would be the title. Since personal communications rarely have a title, instead provide a brief description of the subject you discussed. If the communication was an email, use the subject line of the email. Put this information in quotation marks and put a period at the end, inside the closing quotations. Example: Hagrid, Rubeus. "Basilisks as Pets."
Provide the date the communication took place. Use a precise date for the communications. If it spanned several days, use the most recent date. Type the date in day-month-year format, abbreviating the names of months with more than 4 letters. Place a period at the end of the date. Example: Hagrid, Rubeus. "Basilisks as Pets." 12 Aug. 2020.
Close your entry with the type of communication. The type of communication might be "telephone call" or "email interview." Capitalize the first letter, since it follows a period, then place a period at the end. Example: Hagrid, Rubeus. "Basilisks as Pets." 12 Aug. 2020. Email interview.
Include the person's last name in your in-text citation. MLA in-text citations normally include the last name of the author and the page number. However, since personal communication isn't published, a page number isn't needed. Simply put the person's last name in a parenthetical at the end of the sentence, inside the closing punctuation. For example, you might write: As with any snake, you run the risk of being bitten if you decide to keep a Basilisk for a pet (Hagrid). Often, it will be more readable for you to describe the communication and use the person's name in the text of your paper. In this situation, you don't need to include a parenthetical in-text citation at all. For example, you might write: Rubeus Hagrid, who teaches students at Hogwarts how to care for magical creatures, said he'd never heard of such a thing as a "tame" Basilisk.
APA
Use only in-text citations for personal communications. Since personal communication isn't published, there's nothing for your readers to access, so APA style doesn't require any Reference List entry. If you're using a full parenthetical citation, it would include the person's first initial and last name, followed by a comma. Then you'd type the phrase "personal communication," also followed by a comma. The final element of a full parenthetical citation is the date of communication in month-day-year format. Don't abbreviate the name of the month. For example, you might write: Transfiguration is one of the most complex courses in the Hogwarts curriculum, seldom mastered by students (M. McGonagall, personal communication, August 2, 2020).
Use only the last 2 elements if you include the person's name in your text. Sometimes including the person's name in your text enhances the flow and readability. If you decide to do that, place a parenthetical after their name with the phrase "personal communication," followed by a comma and the date in month-day-year format. For example, you might write: According to Professor McGonagall (personal communication, August 2, 2020), human transfiguration is typically beyond the reach of student wizards.
Provide only an attribution for original research. If the communication you had with the person was part of the original research for your paper, you don't need a parenthetical citation because they're not technically a source — they're a part of your work. Instead, you'd simply credit their words to them by providing their full name in your paper. For example, you might write: In response to a survey of Hogwarts professors, Minerva McGonagall noted that "despite the risk, only 1 student in her class ever got stuck in a transfigured state."
Chicago
Start your footnote with the name of the person. Chicago style dictates that personal communication is only cited in footnotes, not in your Bibliography at the end of your paper. Start the footnote by typing the first and last name of the person you communicated with, followed by a comma. Example: Severus Snape,
Add identifying information about the person if relevant. Sometimes, the position the person holds is relevant to your paper or explains whey you talked to them for your paper. If you feel it would help your readers to know this information, add it in parentheses after the person's name, before the comma following the person's name. Example: Severus Snape (potions professor),
Describe the nature of the communications. In the next part of your footnote, let your readers know if you had a discussion, phone call, or email exchange with the person. Use "the author" in place of your own name. Follow this information with a comma. Example: Severus Snape (potions professor), email exchange with the author, If the interview was in person, you might also include the name of the city where the discussion took place, but this information isn't strictly necessary. If you do include the city, place a comma after it to separate the element.Example: Sybill Trelawney, discussion with the author, Hogsmeade,
Close with a precise date for the communications. Type the date in day-month-year format. Don't abbreviate the name of the month. Place a period at the end of the date to end your footnote. Example: Severus Snape (potions professor), email exchange with the author, 7 August 2020.
Use only the person's last name in shortened notes. Typically, the first footnote in Chicago style includes all the same information as a Bibliography entry and subsequent footnotes use only the author's last name and the title. However, for personal communication, the "shortened" version includes all the same information as the first footnote. Simply type the person's last name only, rather than their first and last name, if you want. Example: Snape (potions professor), email exchange with the author, 7 August 2020.
Comments
0 comment