Comments on: Citing personal communications in APA Style

By: Jack Caulfield

Jack Caulfield — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 15:11:46 +0000

In reply to Laura.

Hi Laura,

If you feel this document is essential to your thesis, you can probably include it as an appendix. Then you can write “(see appendix)” when you refer to it in the text, and there’s no need for a specific citation. I would advise discussing this with your supervisor though; depending on what the document is, there may be some privacy or copyright issues with including it in your thesis like that.

By: Jack Caulfield

Jack Caulfield — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 14:30:48 +0000

In reply to Laura.

Hi Laura,

The APA manual doesn’t provide much specific information about repeated personal communication citations. It doesn’t mention anything about omitting the words “personal communication” on subsequent citations, so I think it’s best to keep including them.

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 14:44:39 +0000

Does the reference have to include the phrase ‘personal communication’ as well as the date each time it is repeated?

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 10:03:47 +0000

Hi! Thank you for this article, very helpful! I was wondering what I should do in case I would like to cite a document that I received in an email. I would say this is personal communication. However, I am planning on adding the document as an attachment to my thesis as it is important that readers can access the document. Should I still cite it as personal communication?