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Citation Guide: How to cite PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS

A guide for navigating various citation styles in order to create citations for resources cited in research papers.

Personal Communication

Personal Communication includes: private letters, memos, some electronic communication (i.e. email or messages from nonarchived discussion groups), personal interviews, telephone conversations, etc.

These types of communication are not recoverable data and therefore should not be included on the Reference page.

Cite personal communications in text or as a footnote.

Example:

Mark Johnson said in an email to the author, John, he ...

¹Terry O'Kelly, e-mail message to author, June 6, 2009.