How to Cite a Speech in APA Style | Format & Examples

How you cite a speech in APA Style depends on the format in which you heard it.

For an audio recording of a speech found online, list the speaker, the date when the speech took place, the title in italics, “Speech audio recording” in square brackets, the website, and the URL. You can use a timestamp to specify a location in the in-text citation.

APA format Speaker last name, Initials. (Year, Month Day). Speech title [Speech audio recording]. Website Name. URL
APA reference entry Kennedy, J. F. (1961, January 20). Presidential inaugural address [Speech audio recording]. American Rhetoric. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkinaugural.htm
APA in-text citation (Kennedy, 1961, 01:45)

The formats for citing a paper presentation from a conference and for citing speeches that don’t fit any of these categories are shown below. The formats for citing a TED Talk or a speech uploaded to YouTube are explained elsewhere.

Citing a paper presentation

To cite a paper presentation from an academic conference, use the following format. List the date as the range of dates across which the conference took place.

APA format Author name, Initials. (Year, Month DayDay). Paper title [Paper presentation]. Conference Name, City, State, Country. URL
APA reference entry Jang, S. (2019, August 8–11). Deconstructing the opposition of natural/arbitrary in Coleridge’s theory of language [Paper presentation]. NASSR 2019: Romantic Elements, Chicago, IL, United States.
APA in-text citation (Jang, 2019)

However, if you’re citing a published conference paper from a journal or book, use the format of that source type.

Scribbr Citation CheckerNew

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

  • Missing commas and periods
  • Incorrect usage of “et al.”
  • Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
  • Missing reference entries

Learn more

Citing speeches as personal communications

Speeches that cannot be accessed by the reader in some sort of recording or transcript and were not part of a conference are cited as personal communications.

This is the format used in APA Style for sources the reader won’t be able to access themselves. Because they are not retrievable, personal communications don’t appear in the reference list; they’re just cited in the text.

Personal communication citation
The topic of genetic modification was covered in the speech (H. So, personal communication, February 19, 2019).

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, June 16). How to Cite a Speech in APA Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved November 27, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/speech/

Check out other APA examples

Citing personal communications in APA Style Citing tables and figures from other sources in APA Style
How to cite a book in APA Style How to cite a brochure in APA Style
How to cite a conference paper in APA Style How to cite a court case in APA Style
How to cite a dictionary in APA Style How to cite a dissertation in APA Style
How to cite a government website or report in APA Style How to cite a journal article in APA Style
How to cite a law in APA Style How to cite a magazine article in APA Style
How to cite a movie in APA Style How to cite a newspaper article in APA Style
How to cite a patent in APA Style How to cite a PDF in APA Style
How to cite a podcast in APA Style How to cite a PowerPoint in APA Style
How to cite a press release in APA Style How to cite a report in APA Style
How to cite a speech in APA Style How to cite a survey in APA Style
How to cite a TED Talk in APA Style How to cite a TV show in APA Style
How to cite a tweet in APA Style How to cite a webpage with no author, date, or title in APA Style
How to cite a website in APA Style How to cite a YouTube video in APA Style
How to cite an encyclopedia in APA Style How to cite an image in APA Style
How to cite an interview in APA Style How to cite the Bible in APA Style
Is this article helpful?
Jack Caulfield

Jack is a Brit based in Amsterdam, with an MA in comparative literature. He writes for Scribbr about his specialist topics: grammar, linguistics, citations, and plagiarism. In his spare time, he reads a lot of books.