How to Cite a YouTube Video and a Tweet

Many have shared YouTube videos and re-tweeted tweets from anyone without giving credit to the author. It is time for our younger generation to start giving credit to authors of information from the Internet. Information that have been credited is getting more credibility because people have acknowledged that the information is trustworthy.

Below is the format for citing a tweet and a YouTube video.

A Tweet

MLA posted guidelines on their website for how to cite a tweet on a Works Cited page. Begin with the user's name (Last Name, First Name) followed by his/her Twitter username in parentheses. Insert a period outside the parentheses. Next, place the tweet in its entirety in quotations, inserting a period after the tweet within the quotations. Include the date and time of posting, using the reader's time zone; separate the date and time with a comma and end with a period. Include the word "Tweet" afterwards and end with a period.

Brokaw, Tom (tombrokaw). "SC demonstrated why all the debates are the engines of this campaign." 22 Jan. 2012, 3:06 a.m. Tweet.

Purdue Writing Lab (PurdueWLab). "Spring break is around the corner, and all our locations will be open next week." 5 Mar. 2012, 12:58 p.m. Tweet.

YouTube Videos

The MLA does not currently prescribe a citation style for YouTube videos. Based on MLA standards for other media formats, we feel that the following format is the most acceptable for citing YouTube videos:

Author’s Name or Poster’s Username. “Title of Image or Video.” Media Type
Text. Name of Website. Name of Website’s Publisher, date of posting. Medium. date retrieved.

Here is an example of what that looks like:

Shimabukuro, Jake. "Ukulele Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro." Online video clip.
YouTube. YouTube, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. 9 Sept. 2010.

EXAMPLE: A Tweet from Twitter

EXAMPLE: YouTube Video

SOURCE:  TheFineBros. "Kids React to Old Computers." Online video clip.

YouTube. YouTube, 25 May 2014. Web. 26 September 2014.

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Source: Online Writing Lab. MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications). 20 Owl Purdue University, 1995-2014. Web. 2 September 2014.