How to Cite a Blog in APA
As blogs continue to become a part of everyday life for businesses and personal growth alike, needing to properly cite and reference them will be crucial to any writer or student. Writers of all genres and spaces will need to know how to accurately cite a blog in APA, MLA, Chicago, or others, but we will stick to APA for this post.
The structure of an American Psychological Association citation is most popular with writings within the realm of the social sciences. Think of academia in psychology, anthropology, and sociology, but APA doesn’t end there. Though it is typically used with scholarly work, other avenues have seen the American Psychological Association citation as well. The most vital part of any citation, whether APA, MLA, Chicago, or other, you always want to give credit where credit is due.
Structure of APA
As you well know, an in-text citation is much different than a works cited page citation, so I will include examples of both. The structure of an in-text citation, whether it is a paraphrase or a quotation, is very simple and similar to any other text citing in APA format. The blog citation format follows the same format as referencing a journal in APA.
Just like any citation, you will need to answer 4 basic questions: who, what, where, and when for a blog post or comment on a blog post. We will get into the structure of the comment in a bit.
Who
Who wrote the blog, or were there multiple people? Do you know their name, or is it under a company or team name? Sometimes you may only have a screen name for the team of writers, but often times they will have a “posted by” towards the bottom.
What
This is where you note the name of the blog itself. Typically found on the blog home page, and scattered throughout their website in various places.
When
Find the post date, that the blog was posted. Many will have a year, month, and day, but some will only have a year and month. Some may even only have the year. As long as you note on your reference page that it is only the year, your in-text citation will be perfect.
Where
The easiest part of the process is the URL. Grab the website you got the blog post or comment from and it will go at the end of the format.
Works Cited
Author, A. [Screen name if applicable]. (Date). Post title – not italicized. Blog name. http://www.xxxx
In-Text:
(Author Surname or Screen name, Year)
Some Important Notes on Structure:
- If you cite a blog in APA where the author’s name is unknown, and all you have to go on is their screen name, use that alone without any brackets.
- If the author does not go by their personal name, but rather there is a team of writers under one branded company name, do not use a full stop between the author’s name and the screen name.
Examples
Works Cited/Reference
Doe, J. [Jane Eats]. (2021, August 21). Spaghetti in Italy. Jane Eats. https://www.janeeats.com
In-Text – for both direct quotation and paraphrase
(Jane Eats, 2021)
Comments
With blogs being a forum for other creators and readers alike to comment on, you may also need to cite a comment from a blog. To do this, the format is fairly similar, but with any written copy, there are differences. For in-text citations, you will use the same format as above.
Author, A. (Date). Title or first sentence – not italicized [comment “article or post title]. Blog name. http://www.xxxx
Smith, J (2021, August 22). The most refreshing look into Italian culture from an outsider’s perspective. [Comment on the post “Spaghetti in Italy”]. Jane Eats. http://www.janeeats.com
Conclusion
Now that you know all of the ways to properly cite a blog in APA format, you can give credit to the wonderful blogging minds all around. It is not a matter of if you will need to cite a blog, it’s a matter of when with the rise of blogging that we are seeing each and every day now. With these tips, you can cite a full blog, direct quotes from the blog, and comments on the blog forum.
