Because personal communications do not provide recoverable data, they are not included in a reference list, but are cited in text only. Some personal correspondence (such as archived letters) is recoverable and should be included in a reference list as archival material.
Proceedings of meetings or symposia can be published in books or in periodical form. If so, they should be cited in the same format as a book or periodical. Paper presentations that have not been published should also be cited in a reference list. Provide the month and year of the presentation, the title of the presentation, and the name and location of the meeting.
Personal communication can include interviews, private letters, memos, electronic communications (e-mail), and telephone communications. Information required for citing personal communication includes:
Examples of In-Text Citations:
In her e-mail regarding the initiation of the project, T. S. Carson (personal communication, May 31, 2011) indicated that ...
The project required an initial investment of approximately two million dollars (T. S. Carson, personal communication, May 31, 2011).
Contributions to meetings or symposia that have not been formallty published should still be included in a reference list as follows:
Example of Reference:
Atwood, M. (1993, December). Silencing the scream. Boundaries of the Imagination Forum. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the MLA Convention, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
If you are citing an informal lecture (for example, a lecture provided as part of a course you are taking), you should cite it within the text of your essay as you would a personal communication. You do not need to include it in a reference list.
Example of In-Text Citation:
In her lecture on the future of nursing delivered at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario on September 14, 2011, Theresa S. Carson, the Senior Advisor for Nursing at the Robert Wood Foundation, stated that ...
Nurses need to embrace new technology in order to be effective health care providers in the future (T. S. Carson, Lecture on the future of nursing, Cambrian College, Sudbury, Ontario, September 14, 2011).
