How to cite PowerPoint presentations in APA format

The APA (American Psychological Association) style is followed by all kinds of academic institutions, journals, articles, and books. But today, information is not only found in books and on websites. PowerPoint and Keynote presentations contain tons of knowledge.

And yes, if you are going to include that knowledge in your documents, it must be properly cited. But like all things, there are particular rules of citation. The best citation and bibliography tools to write a better research paper. It will help you correctly cite your sources and put together your bibliography no matter how complex it is. Read More

How to cite PowerPoint presentations

1. Cite in references. Include it in the References list like any other online file (eg PDF), but mention the file format in square brackets and the “Retrieved from” URL pointer.

APA Style recommends this format for published presentations available on the web:

Autor, A. A. (año). Título de la presentación [Notas de clase o diapositivas de PowerPoint]. Recuperado de http: // xxxxx

For example:

Torrance, S. (2014). 143 visuales, garabatos y bocetos para inspirar [Diapositivas de powerpoint]. Obtenido de http://www.slideshare.net/Bclari25/educational-technology-ppt

2. Cite it in the text.. You can also treat the presentation as a personal communication and cite it in the text when the slides are from your teacher and are not available on the web.

Cite a presentation the same way you would cite any other example of personal communication. Use the author's last name and the year of presentation in parentheses. Give the most precise date possible.

APA Style recommends this format:

(Apellido del autor, comunicación personal, fecha de publicación), "Idea parafraseada"

For example:

Según (Torrance, comunicación personal, 17 de diciembre de 2017), "existe una desconexión crónica entre lo que la gente se propone hacer y lo que realmente logra en la vida".

A few more things to keep in mind:

• APA does not provide specific rules for direct quoting of the exact PowerPoint slides.
• When you're paraphrasing an idea from another work like the one above, you just need to reference the author and publication date in your in-text citation. You can use the “North Dakota ” notation when no date is given.
• APA style rules also say that authors have to use the past or present perfect tense when using sentences to describe previous research.

Use these basic guidelines. Purdue's online writing lab has an excellent, concise guide to using APA style with more scenarios clearly explained.

Do you find citation sources cumbersome and confusing? Have you mastered it with practice?