Knowing how to cite an email correctly is one of those skills that catches a lot of students off guard. Emails you receive are fair game as sources, especially for interviews, direct questions, and first-hand information. But because an email is essentially a private message, the way you cite it is a bit different from a book or a published article. This guide covers how to cite an email in APA, MLA, and Chicago style, with templates and examples for each.
TLDR: Most style guides treat an email as “personal communication” because your reader cannot access it. This means the citation rules are different from public sources. For APA style, you only cite it in the text, but for MLA style, it goes in your Works Cited list. Always check which style you need to use.
Why Cite an Email at All?
You’ve got to give credit to anyone who contributes information that isn’t your own, and an email is no exception. I once received an email from a local historian that ended up being the starting point for my whole research project, and not citing that conversation would have meant taking credit for his expertise. When you cite an email, you’re giving credit to the person who helped you and showing the scope of your research. Even if the source isn’t a book from a library, it still shaped your work.
In my experience reviewing student papers, this is also one of the most commonly skipped citation types. Students assume that private sources don’t count. They do. Any information that came to you from an outside person, whether through an email, a phone call, or a text message, needs to be acknowledged in your paper.
Before you start formatting the email citation, gather this information first:
- The sender’s full name and title or affiliation (if relevant)
- The recipient’s name (usually yourself)
- The subject line of the email
- The exact date the email was sent
- The general topic or context of the message
Formatting Your Citation
Because emails are considered personal communications, they are handled differently by each citation style. The main issue is that your reader can’t look up the source, unlike a book or a published magazine article. Here’s how the big three styles handle this unique challenge of personal communication.
A quick tip: Before you cite any personal communication, it’s a powerful courtesy to ask the sender for permission. It respects their privacy and solidifies your ethical standing.
APA 7th Edition
This style emphasizes that sources in the reference list must be recoverable by the reader. Since an email is not recoverable, you only use an in-text citation. You do not create a reference list entry. The in-text citation includes the sender’s first initial and last name, the phrase “personal communication,” and the exact date the email was sent. See the APA Style guidelines on personal communications for the full official rule.
Template: (First Initial. Last Name, personal communication, Month Day, Year)
Example: According to the expert, the data was “conclusive for the period” (J. Doe, personal communication, August 14, 2025).
Need help formatting this quickly? The APA citation generator can format your personal communication entry in seconds.
MLA 9th Edition
The MLA style takes a different path, requiring a Works Cited entry for an email. This provides your reader with as much context as possible for the personal communication. The entry includes the sender’s name, the subject line of the email in quotes, the recipient’s name, and the date. The MLA Style Center covers email citations and other personal communication formats.
Template: Last Name, First Name. “Subject Line.” Received by Recipient Name, Day Month Year.
Example Works Cited: Doe, Jane. “Re: Your questions about the project.” Received by John Smith, 14 Aug. 2025.
In-text citation example: (Doe).
To quickly build your Works Cited entry, try the MLA citation generator for personal communications and other source types.
Chicago 17th Edition
Chicago style treats an email as a personal communication and typically confines the citation to a footnote or endnote. It is rarely included in the bibliography. The note should describe the message, listing the sender, their affiliation if relevant, the fact that it was an email message to the author, and the date. Refer to the Chicago Manual of Style citation guide for detailed guidance.
Template (Notes-Bibliography): Author First Last (affiliation if relevant), email message to author, Month Day, Year.
Example Note: 1. Jane Doe (biologist, River Institute), email message to author, August 14, 2025.
Chicago Author-Date: If your field uses the author-date format instead of notes-bibliography, treat the email the same way. Cite it parenthetically in the text using the sender’s last name and year, and note it as personal communication. You do not add a reference list entry because the email is not publicly recoverable. Example: (Doe 2025, pers. comm.). The Chicago author-date citation generator can build this for you.
For complex sources, Mastering Citations can be a lifesaver, and a citation generator can help format your entry, but always verify the result. These tools are assistants, not replacements for knowing the rules of personal communications.
Style Comparison
| Style | In Text Citation Format | Reference List / Works Cited Entry? |
|---|---|---|
| APA | (J. Doe, personal communication, date) | No |
| MLA | (Doe) | Yes |
| Chicago (Notes) | Footnote: Jane Doe, email to author, date. | No (Generally) |
| Chicago (Author-Date) | (Doe 2025, pers. comm.) | No |
When Is an Email NOT a Personal Communication?
Not every email counts as a personal communication for citation purposes. The personal communication rule applies specifically when your reader cannot recover or verify the source independently. If the email is publicly available or was later published somewhere accessible, you should cite it as the published source instead.
Cite as personal communication: A private email from a researcher answering your specific question. Your reader cannot find this email. Use the personal communication format for APA, MLA, or Chicago.
Do not cite as personal communication: An email newsletter that is archived on a public website, or an email interview that was later published in a journal or magazine. Cite those the same way you would cite a website or a published interview. The deciding test is recoverability, not delivery method.
When you are not sure, ask yourself: could my reader look this up and read the same message I read? If yes, find the published version and cite that instead. If no, the personal communication rules for how to cite an email apply.
Common Mistakes When You Cite an Email
When I started teaching citation rules, I noticed the same errors coming up over and over with email sources. Here are the most common ones and how to fix them:
- Creating a reference list entry for APA email sources. APA 7th edition does not include emails in the reference list. In-text citation only. I have seen this mistake in nearly every first draft from students who look up APA rules for the first time.
- Forgetting the subject line in MLA format. MLA requires the subject line in quotation marks as the “title” of the source. Skipping it leaves the Works Cited entry incomplete.
- Using the wrong date. Always use the date the email was sent, not the date you read it or the date you started your research.
- Treating a forwarded email as a new source. If someone forwarded you an email written by a third party, the original sender is the author, not the person who forwarded it. Cite the original author and date.
- Citing a newsletter as a personal communication. If the email came from a public newsletter, mailing list, or subscription service, it is not a private communication. Find its archived URL and cite it as a website instead.
FAQ
What if the email is part of a long email thread?
You should cite each individual email message that has the information you need. Give the specific date of the email in your in-text citation or note. If you’re drawing on multiple emails in a thread, you might need to credit each one separately to keep things clear.
How is citing an email different from citing a published interview?
The key difference is recoverability. A published interview appears in a magazine, newspaper, or website that your reader can find and verify. A private email is just between you and the sender, so your reader has no way to look it up. That is why an email gets the personal communication treatment, while a published interview is cited like any other article or web page. The delivery method does not determine the citation format, recoverability does.
Do I need permission before citing someone’s email?
There is no formal legal requirement to ask, but it is strongly recommended as a professional and ethical courtesy. Many style guides and institutional review boards advise getting written consent when quoting private communications. Asking also gives the sender a chance to clarify any points before you publish your work. When in doubt, ask first.
What if I received the email from a professor or supervisor?
Treat it the same as any other personal communication. Use your professor’s full name and title in the citation. In APA, that looks like (P. Smith, personal communication, October 3, 2025). Always ask for permission to quote them directly, since the email was not intended for a public audience.
Can I use an email as a quote, or only as a paraphrase?
You can do both. For a direct quote, enclose the exact wording in quotation marks and add the in-text citation immediately after the closing quote mark. For a paraphrase, you still need the in-text citation, but the quotation marks are not needed. Learning how to introduce quotations properly, or how to paraphrase a source effectively, will help you blend both options into your writing without breaking the flow.
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Terry is a Chicago-based writer and editor who creates practical, student-friendly guides on essay writing, research, and citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago). He’s spent 15+ years editing educational content and building clear examples that help readers apply rules without guessing. When he’s not revising drafts, he’s usually turning messy notes into clean outlines and hunting down the one detail everyone skips.