How to Cite a Tweet

Citations from Twitter are increasing as tweets become a way of life.

Twitter, an online social networking service, allows you to communicate short messages in 140 characters or less. To cite a message from Twitter, format your citation according to the American Psychological Association (APA) style for subjects related to the social sciences, such as business, criminal justice, economics and law, and medical subjects, including nursing and psychology. Use the Modern Language Association (MLA) style for subjects related to the humanities and liberal arts, such as literature, mass communications and media studies.

Things You'll Need

• Author or editor names
• Article name
• Title of the Website or project
• Version numbers
• Publisher name
• Publishing date
• Access date

Instructions

1. Determine the format appropriate for your citation: APA or MLA.

2. Cite using APA style by writing the author of the tweet in the format of the Twitter handle using the "@" symbol and Twitter name followed by a period and space. Add a parenthesis mark, the year, a comma and the month and day the author posted the tweet followed by a parenthesis mark and period. For example, "@BarackObama. (2009, July 15)."

3. Enter the full text of the tweet, followed by the Twitter post address and a period. For example, "Launched American Graduation Initiative to help additional 5 mill. Americans graduate college by 2020: http://bit.ly/gcTX7."

4. Enter a space. Cite the website from where you retrieved the information. For example, "Retrieved from http://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/2651151366."

5. Cite using MLA style by writing the author of the tweet in the format of the Twitter handle using the "@" symbol, Twitter name, period and a space. Cite the posting title. For example, "@BarackObama. Web log post."

6. Enter a space. Add "Twitter.com" in italics followed by a period and space. Add the date the author posted the tweet, a period and space. Add the medium of the publication, a period, space and the date you accessed the website. For example, "Twitter.com. 7 Nov. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2009."

Tips & Warnings

• Twitter limits the type of content that you can publish. Twitter warns against publishing or posting other people's credit card numbers, street addresses, Social Security/national identity numbers or other private information without authorization.

References

• Boise State University: Citations
• Lousy Writer; APA Style and MLA Style: The Differences Between Paper Format Styles; Brian Scott
• Twitter.com: The Twitter Rules

Resources

• University of North Carolina; How and Why Scholars Cite on Twitter; Jason Priem et al.