How to Cite a Lecture in APA
Published August 10, 2012. Updated July 13, 2022.
Lecture and PowerPoint presentations are often great sources of information for specific papers. This guide will show you how to cite lectures and PowerPoint presentation slides following APA 7th edition guidelines. The type of lecture (e.g., classroom, conference, etc.) and format of the information (saw lecture, accessed slides, etc.) will determine what citation format you use.
Guide overview
- Citing a conference presentation
- Citing a classroom presentation/lecture slides
- Citing a classroom presentation/lecture you watched
- Citing a recorded presentation (video)
- Troubleshooting
Citing a conference presentation
Structure:
Presenter #1 Last name, F. M., & Presenter #2 Last Name, F. M. (Year, Month Day of conference). Name of presentation [Presentation format]. Name of Conference, Location. URL
Example:
Jacobson, T.E., & Mackey, T. (2013, April 10-13). What’s in the name?: Information literacy, metaliteracy, or transliteracy [Panel session]. Association of College & Research Libraries, Indianapolis, IN, United States. https://www.slideshare.net/tmackey/acrl-2013
In-text citation structure & example:
(Lecture Last Name, Year)
(Jacobson & Mackey, 2013)
Citing a classroom presentation/lecture slides
If you are citing a classroom presentation file you’ve viewed or accessed, use the following structure.
Structure:
Lecturer Last name, F. M. (Year, month date). Title of lecture [Description of file type]. Department name, university name. URL
Example:
Prosser, M. (2021, October 18). Introduction to rhetorical forms [PowerPoint slides]. English and Modern Languages Department, California Polytechnic State University. https://https://english.calpoly.edu/
In-text citation structure & example:
(Lecturer Last Name, Year)
(Prosser, 2021)
Citing a presentation/lecture you have watched
If you are citing information you learned through a presentation/lecture you attended, FIRST see if you can find the documented source (e.g., book, article, etc.) the presenter got the information from. If the information is original and the presentation was the primary source, treat the information as personal communication. This means you ONLY need to cite it in an in-text citation and no reference list entry is needed.
In-text citation structure & examples:
(Presenter First Initial., Last Name, personal communication, Month Day, Year of presentation)
(L. Koerte, personal communication, March 17, 2021)
L. Koerte (personal communication, March 17, 2021)
Citing a recorded presentation/lecture (video)
Cite the recording as you would cite a regular video. The person or channel who uploaded/published the video is credited as the “author” even if they did not conduct the presentation/lecture.
Structure:
Uploader Last name, F. M. (Year, month date). Title of video [Video]. Website Name. URL
Example:
Stanford. (2002, January 13). Einstein’s general theory of relativity | Lecture 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbmf0bB38h0
In-text citation structure & example:
(Uploader Last Name, Year)
(Stanford, 2002)
Troubleshooting
Solution #1: Citing a presentation that comes from a classroom’s website or learning management system (LMS)
If the slides you are citing come from a classroom website or learning management system (LMS) like Canvas or Blackboard, and you are writing for an audience that has access to the site, then provide the name of the site and the URL for the login page.
Reference page structure:
Last name, F. M. (Date). Presentation title in sentence case [PowerPoint slides]. LMS name@University name acronym. Link to login page
Reference page example:
Vincent, P. (2020). Recognizing rhetorical devices in visual rhetoric [PowerPoint slides]. Blackboard@ULV. https://idp.quicklaunchsso.com/laverne
In-text citation structure:
Narrative citation: Last Name (Year)
Parenthetical citation: (Last Name, Year)
In-text citation examples:
Narrative citation: Vincent (2020)
Parenthetical citation: (Vincent, 2020)