How to Cite Blogs in Journals
Blogs (formerly known as "weblogs") are now so commonplace they've entered the world of academic writing. Both the APA and MLA style guides--the two formats most commonly used for academic writing--give specific examples of how to cite blog entries, both in-text and in references/works cited pages. The guidelines for citing blogs aren't much different from those for other electronic sources.
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Instructions
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MLA Format
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Compile all available information about the blog for your Works Cited list. An MLA Works Cited entry for a blog posting source will usually include as much as possible of the following information: Author name, last name first. Title of the blog post being cited. Name of blog/site (in italics). Version number (if applicable). Name of sponsor/publisher/other organization associated with the site, date the blog entry in question was created. Medium of publication (in this case, "Web"). Date the entry was cited or accessed.
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2
Make in-text citations by referencing the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry for any in-text citations; this may be the author's name, the name of that particular blog entry or the name of the blog website. This is intended to lead the reader to the appropriate portion of the Works Cited page.
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3
Include a website address for in-text citations only if it's included in the name of the blog. The MLA stance is that readers should be able to locate websites by doing author or title searches. If your professor or publisher requires you to include URLs in citation, include them on the "Works Cited" page at the very end of the citation, inside angle brackets and ending with a period.
APA Format
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4
Include the blog in your References page as follows: Author name, last name first. Date retrieved in parentheses, year followed by month (written out) and day. Title of posting. "Message posted to" or "Retrieved from" followed by the URL for blog posting. Date posting was created, again in parentheses.
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5
Make in-text citations by referencing the blog author's name.
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6
Include, if possible, the date of the particular blog entry being created. This should follow the author's name in any in-text citation; put the date in parentheses. Just the year is sufficient, unless you need to distinguish between multiple entries of the same year.
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