This status of ‘personal communication’ also applies to other documents that are ‘not findable’ to other people, such as a private emails. [2] X Research source For personal interviews, you may also want to include a transcript of your typed questions and answers. This should be included in an Appendix, immediately following your References page.
The internal citation format looks the same whether you quote or paraphrase. It does not change. [3] X Research source For example, say you write, “The people in the command room cheered after the event. ” If you know this because your interview subject told you so, and this information is not readily available via a textbook, etc. , then you must cite it. Failure to do so counts as academic dishonesty.
You should place the previous sentence’s period after your citation. For example, in the text you will see, “The people in the command center cheered the event (R. Smith, personal communication, October 15, 2000). ” Your citation counts as a continuation of that sentence for reference purposes.
In the case of research interviews, your subjects may need to remain anonymous. Therefore, their full names cannot appear within your citation. Instead, if you have numerous interview participants to keep track of, you can assign them codes, such as “Male participant 23,” or “Participant 23. ”[6] X Research source The code name will then take the place of the traditional name in the internal citation. For example, your citation will look like, “(Participant 23, personal communication, October 15, 2000). "
This phrase cannot be abbreviated, so make sure to present it consistently every time in internal citations.
For example, a date should appear as, “October 15, 2000,” not, “Oct. ’00,” or, “October 15. ”
This is done because it is understood that the reader can get the interview subject’s name from the preceding sentence. Otherwise, listing it twice that close together would bog down the text. You might write, “Robert Smith describes how the people in the command room cheered after the event (personal communication, October 15, 2000). ”
Your date should look like, “(2000),” not, “(’00). ” If you cannot find a date for the work substitute “n. d. ” without quotation marks in its place.
If you use brackets, add a period immediately after the closed bracket. For example, it will look like, “[Interview with James Michael, author of Reality]. ” Or, it could look like, “The Most Amazing Interview Title. ” If you include a published work in the brief bio description, make sure to italicize the title. Include the title exactly as it appears within the published text.
For example, when working with a single-author journal entry your citation will proceed with the full journal title, the volume number, and the page numbers of the interview. It will look similar to, “Word, J. (2000). [Interview with James Michael, author of Reality]. Journal of Writing Studies, 20, 400-411. ” Note that the journal title is italicized as well. [13] X Research source If the volume number is not available, it can be omitted. Note that the consecutive page numbers are separated with a dash. To include a series of non-consecutive page numbers you would list them with commas in between. Always end your citation with a period.
For example, a DOI reference citation for a published interview might look like,”Word, J. (2000). [Interview with James Michael, author of Reality]. Journal of Writing Studies, 20, 400-411. doi:453432342342. ”
If you quote the published interview directly, then you must include a page number as part of your internal citation. Add a comma after the publication date and write the page number out preceded by a “p. ” An in-text citation in this situation should look like, “(Wood, 2000, p. 402). ” “Wood” is the author’s last name, “2000” is the publication year, and “p. 402” means the quotation was found on page 402 in the text. In contrast, if you mention the author directly in the text, you can follow a distinct in-text citation style. With this format you include the publication date in parentheses immediately after your mention of the author’s last name and add the page numbers at the end of the sentence in parentheses as well. For example, “Wood (2000) stated that “reality is subjective” (p. 402). ” By looking at this sentence you can tell that the author’s last name is Wood, the work was published in the year 2000, and the quote can be found on page 402 in the text. This is a good approach if you are looking to avoid heavy citing. [16] X Research source
Follow the date with the interview title, if available. The title should be in italics. Then, in parentheses, state the interviewer’s first initial and last name, followed by a comma and the label “Interviewer. ” Then, in brackets, write out “Audio file. Close the brackets and add a period. If your audio file came from a website, at the end of your citation write, “Retrieved from,” followed by the website. Or, you can include the DOI here, if available.
