Quote a Tweet

As digital media continues to expand, the need to quote information from social media in an academic setting increases, too. If you need to quote a tweet in your next paper, here's how to do so using MLA, APA, and Chicago Style.

Steps

Retweeting

  1. Copy the content of the Tweet you'd like to share and retweet it. Because this only works if the Tweet is much shorter than 140 characters, it's recommended that you use the official retweet button instead. Still, this is an effective method of quoting and reposting a tweet.
    • After you've copied the content, open a new Tweet box and paste the content into the message.
  2. Add the letters RT and the Tweet author's @username. This shows that the content is a retweet and isn't your own content. This is the most courteous way to borrow the content and tip your hat to the original author.
    • You can also add your own comment at the beginning of the message. Example: Wow! RT (@username) "Quoting a tweet is so easy."
  3. Click Tweet to post the message to your followers.

Quoting a Tweet in an MLA Paper[1]

  1. Quote the tweet using an in-text citation. When quoting a tweet in the body of a paper, you should quote the full tweet or part of the tweet along with the author's real name.
    • You can give the author's full name in the sentence or include the author's last name in parentheses.
      • Example: As John Doe noted, "Quoting a tweet is surprisingly simple."
      • Example: It seems that "Quoting a tweet is surprisingly simple" (Doe).
    • Use the author's real name when provided. If you only know the author's username, use that, instead.
      • Example: Quoting a tweet in a paper is "so simple, a monkey could do it" (RandomExampleUsername).
  2. Cite the entire tweet on your Works Cited page. When including the citation information for a tweet in your "Works Cited" page, you need to include the author's real name, username, and the full tweet.
    • Include the author's full name in LastName, FirstName format. In parentheses, include the author's username. If only a username is provided, use that alone.
    • Write the full tweet in quotation marks, putting the part you quoted in parentheses."
    • Include an approximate date and time at which the tweet was posted.
    • Conclude with the word "Tweet" to indicate the medium.
    • Example: Doe, John (JohnDoeExampleName). "Quoting a tweet is surprisingly simple." 18 July 2013, 12:00 p.m. Tweet.
    • Example: RandomExampleUsername. "Just learned to quote tweets. It's (so simple, a monkey could do it)." 18 July 2013, 12:00 p.m. Tweet.

Quoting a Tweet in an APA Paper[2]

  1. Quote a tweet in-text by blending sentence and parenthetical citations. If you have the author's real name, introduce the author's last name in sentence as you quote the tweet. Within parentheses, note the author's username.
    • If no real name is available, only the username is needed.
    • You can quote a full or partial tweet.
    • After writing the username in parentheses, you should also write the year the tweet was published.
    • Example: As noted by Doe, "Quoting a tweet is surprisingly simple" (JohnDoeExampleName, 2013).
    • Example: Quoting tweets is "so simple, a monkey could do it" (RandomExampleUsername, 2013).
  2. Include reference information for the quoted tweet on your References page. The information must provide enough information for the reader to easily track the original tweet down.
    • The author's username must be included in the reference, but the real name does not need to be. Follow the username with a period.
    • In parentheses, write the date in year-month-day format, followed by a parentheses.
    • Write the full tweet after the date. Only capitalize the first word and do not put the tweet in quotation marks.
    • Label the title as “Twitter post” in brackets, followed by a period.
    • Conclude with the exact URL of the exact tweet, proceeded by the phrase “Retrieved from.” Do not include a period after the URL.
    • Example: JohnDoeExampleName. (2013, July 18). Quoting a tweet is surprisingly simple [Twitter post]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/JohnDoeExampleName/status/00000000

Quoting a Tweet in a Chicago Style Paper[3]

  1. Quote a tweet in-text by incorporating it into the sentence. You do not need to include a parenthetical citation for a tweet in Chicago Style. You may, however, introduce the author's name and username before quoting the tweet itself.
    • When quoting a tweet, write the author's full name in the sentence followed by the @username in parentheses.
    • If desired, you can also introduce the quote as a Twitter post and indicate the day the tweet was published.
    • Example: In a Twitter post on July 18, 2013, John Doe (@JohnDoeExampleName) wrote, "Quoting a tweet is surprisingly simple."
    • Example: In a Twitter post on July 18, 2013, RandomExampleUsername found quoting tweets to be "so simple, even a monkey could do it."
  2. Cite the tweet in your footnotes. Follow an in-text quote with a footnote if you are using a standard Chicago Style form of reference that includes footnotes instead of a Bibliography page.
    • Write the author's real name in FirstName LastName format, followed by a comma.
    • Indicate that the quote is a “Twitter post.” Follow this with another comma.
    • Write the date of the tweet's publication and the time of publication, separated by and followed with two more commas.
    • Conclude with the user's twitter URL. End with a period.
    • Example: John Doe, Twitter post, July 18, 2013, 1:00 p.m., http://twitter.com/JohnDoeExampleName.
    • Example: RandomExampleUsername, Twitter post, July 18, 2013, 1:00 p.m., http://twitter.com/RandomExampleUsername.
  3. Alternatively, cite the tweet in a bibliography. If you are using a Bibliography page instead of a footnote system, include the same information in a bibliographic reference.
    • The information you include will be the same as the information used for a footnote, but the punctuation varies.
    • Write the author's real name in LastName, FirstName format, followed by a period.
    • Indicate that the quote is a “Twitter post.” Follow this with another period.
    • Write the date of the tweet's publication and the time of publication, separated by a comma and followed by a period.
    • Conclude with the user's twitter URL. Do not end with a period.
    • Example: Doe, John. Twitter post. July 18, 2013, 1:00 p.m. http://twitter.com/JohnDoeExampleName
    • Example: RandomExampleUsername. Twitter post. July 18, 2013, 1:00 p.m. http://twitter.com/RandomExampleUsername

Warnings

  • Since Twitter is still fairly recent, the style rules for quoting and citing tweets are not set in stone. The above guidelines are subject to change.

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.mla.org/style/handbook_faq/cite_a_tweet
  2. ↑ http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/10/how-to-cite-twitter-and-facebook-part-ii.html
  3. ↑ http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0164.html
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