How to Write an Email Bibliography

Students are frequently called upon to do research assignments. Research involves consulting a variety of sources, usually books and other print material, but also interviewing an expert on the topic. Interviews can take place in person or via telephone or email. As with all source material, if you use information from an email interview, you must tell the reader exactly how and from whom you got the information. Most academic institutions require that you use either MLA (Modern Language Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines for citing sources or writing the bibliography. MLA and APA styles differ significantly in their guidelines for writing a citation for email.

Instructions

  1. MLA

    • 1

      Save a copy of the email you are quoting or summarizing in your in-box or print a copy. You will need the message for reference when you write the email citation.

    • 2

      Cite the source of your email on the Works Cited page of your paper in alphabetical order with your other sources.

    • 3

      Write the email author's name with the last name followed by a comma and then the first name, followed by a period.

    • 4

      Write the subject of the email. Surround this with quotation marks. If the author responded to an email from you and the "Re:" is part of the subject heading, include that as part of the title.

    • 5

      Indicate that this was an email message to you like this: Email to J. Patton (followed by a period).

    • 6

      Finish the entry with the date on the email. The complete citation should look like this:

      Johnston, Sarah. "Re: A question about therapeutic massage for horses." Email to J. Patton. April 5, 2010.

    APA

    • 7

      Save a copy of the email you are quoting or summarizing in your in-box or print it out for reference.

    • 8

      Cite the source of the email in the body of your paper and not on the reference page. This is called an in-text citation, and it appears in parentheses immediately following the place in your paper where the information from the email appears.

    • 9

      Use an open parenthesis and write the email author's first initial followed by a period and then his last name and a comma.

    • 10

      Write "personal correspondence," and give the date on which you received the email.

    • 11

      Close the parenthesis. A complete in-text citation for email should look like this: (S. Johnston, personal correspondence, Apr. 5, 2010)

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