How to Cite Lecture Notes in APA Style

Identify whether your audience can access the source. APA Style distinguishes between sources that are archived (like a PDF on a university LMS) and those that are not (like a live talk). If the notes are posted on Canvas, Blackboard, or a public website, you will create a full reference list entry. If you are citing your own handwritten notes from a live session that was not recorded or published, you must treat the source as a personal communication. Personal communications are cited only within the body of your essay and are never included in the final reference list.

Start your citation with the instructor's name. Use the format: Last Name, Initials. Immediately follow this with the date in parentheses. For a formal publication or a set of notes from a specific day, include the full date if available: (2023, October 14). If the notes cover an entire semester or the specific date is unknown, using just the year is acceptable. Ensure there is a period after the closing parenthesis. If the author is unknown, which is rare for university lectures, move the title to the author position.

Provide the title of the lecture or the slide deck. Write this title in sentence case (capitalize only the first word and proper nouns) and italics. Immediately after the title, add a description of the medium in square brackets. Use [Lecture notes] for typed documents or [PowerPoint slides] for presentation decks. This bracketed information helps the reader understand the format of the source. Do not italicize the bracketed description. If the lecture has no formal title, create a descriptive one and place it entirely within square brackets without italics.

Complete the reference by stating where the notes can be found. For notes on a password-protected university LMS, provide the name of the University and the Department, followed by the URL of the login page. For publicly available notes, provide the name of the website and the direct URL. If the notes were a physical handout provided in class that is not available online, list the university and department as the publisher. End the citation with a period, but do not put a period after a URL.