How to Cite a Professor in APA

The sixth edition of the "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association" presents style and format guidelines for academic writing. Procedures for citing a wide variety of standard sources, such as articles and books, are included. In addition, less-traditional sources -- such as lectures and electronic media -- are also covered.

In-Person Communication

If information in-text comes from a professor through lecture or personal conversation, the reader cannot access that material. Do not include it on the references page at the end. Cite it only within the text. Cite quotes and paraphrases the same way: treat both as personal interviews.

After the information, use parentheses to hold the professor's first initial, a period, last name, a comma, "personal communication" (without quotation marks), a comma, the month and day, a comma and the year.

Online Notes

If you use information from online lecture notes, cite this in-text and on the references page. After the material in the text, list the professor's last name, a comma and the year within parentheses, such as (Doe, 2013). If the professor's name is mentioned in the text, omit it from the parentheses.

On the reference page, start with the professor's last name, a comma, initials and a period. Put the year within parentheses. Add a period. Put the title of the lecture in italics and in sentence case. Within brackets, place the format type, such as PowerPoint. Add a period. Then put "Retrieved from" (without quotation marks), the name of the website, a colon and the URL.