Skip to Main Content

Harvard Style Guide: Email, interviews and other personal communication

This guide explains how to use the Harvard Style. It includes a short tutorial.

Emails, interviews and other personal communications

In-Text-Citation:
  • Author(s) Last name (Year)
  • (Author(s) Last name, Year)
Example:
  • In an email response, Scott (2010)....
  • In an email to this author (Scott, 2010)
Reference:

Sender Last name, Initials (Year of message) Email to name of recipient, Day Month of communication.

Example:

Scott, G. (2010) E-mail to John Bryce, 26 February.

In-Text-Citation:
  • Interviewee(s) Last name (Year)
  • (Interviewee(s) Last name, Year)
Example:
  • Kenny (2010) claimed in an interview….
  • In an interview on RTE (Kenny, 2010)….
Reference:

Last name, Initials of person interviewed. (Year of interview) ‘Title of the interview (if any)’. Interview by/with Interviewer’s First name Last name, Title of publication, Day Month of Publication, page numbers if present.

Example:

Kenny, E. (2013) ‘Ireland’s lost generation’. Interviewed by Miriam O’Callaghan, Prime Time, RTE One Television, 15 March.

In-Text-Citation:
  • Interviewee(s) Last name (Year)
  • (Interviewee(s) Last name, Year)
Example:
  • O’Brien (2014) outlined honesty as key to parenting……
  • Honesty is seen as key to parenting through the teenage years (O’Brien, 2014).
Reference:

Last name, Initials of person interviewed. (Year of interview) ‘Title of the interview (if any)’. Interview by/with Interviewer’s First name Last name, Title of publication, Day Month of Publication, page numbers if present.  

Example:

O’Brien, M. (2014) ‘Achieving success in parenting’. Interview by Siobhan Moynihan, Irish News Weekly, 6 June, p. 56.

In-Text-Citation:
  • Interviewee(s) Last name (Year)
  • (Interviewee(s) Last name, Year)
Example:
  • O’Nally (2020) talked about the importance of a quiet space……
  • Having a designated quiet space was very important to the interviewee (O'Nally, 2020).
Reference:

Last name, Initials of person interviewed. (Year of interview) ‘Title of the interview (if any)’. Interview by Interviewer’s First name Last name [virtual medium if appropriate], Day Month of interview.  

Example:

O'Nally, S.. (2020) ‘Working from home experiences’. Interview by Sorcha Mulryan [Skype], 6 June.

In-Text-Citation:
  • Author Last name (Year)
  • (Author Last name, Year)
Example:
  • According to Hennessey (2015)
  • As has been argued (Hennessey, 2015)
Reference:

Sender/speaker/author, Initials. (Year) Medium of communication with/to Receiver of communication, Day Month.

Example 1:

Hennessey, T. (2015) Conversation with Margaret Cosgrave, 28 December.

Example 2: 

Hennessey, T (2015) Email to Margaret Cosgrave, 25 June.