Let’s be honest: Sometimes the best information for a paper comes straight from a professor’s PowerPoint presentation. But did you know that source needs to be cited?
Whether you’re making use of your instructor’s lecture materials or pulling information from a Powerpoint found online, you need to make sure to cite your sources if you use information from it in a project or paper.
Here’s a run -t hrough of everything this page includes:
By now, you’re probably familiar with how to cite websites, books or journal articles, but not as knowledgeable about how to cite a Powerpoint presentation. In actuality, citing PowerPoint presentations aren’t all that different from citing written materials, so don’t let yourself be phased! It’s not too hard and compiling an MLA works cited or APA reference page doesn’t take too long—each one should take just a few minutes to create.
To help you with the process, we’ve put together a handy guide demonstrating how to cite a PowerPoint presentation in three commonly used citation styles: MLA, APA and Chicago.
Let’s start by looking for basic information you’ll need for the citation.
Information you may need to cite a PowerPoint Presentation:
Author Last Name, First Name. Presentation Title. Month Year, URL. PowerPoint Presentation.
Example citation :
Park, Lisa. Effective Working Teams . Jan. 2011, https://www.company.meetings/teams. PowerPoint Presentation.
In-text citation structure:
Example in-text citation:
APA reference structure:
Author or Presenter Last Name, Middle Initial. First Initial. (Date of publication). Title of presentation [PowerPoint presentation]. Conference Name, Location. URL
Park, L. (2011, March 24-28). Effective working teams [PowerPoint presentation]. Regional Dairy Workers National Conference, New York, NY, United States. https://www.company.meetings/teams
Author Last Name, First Name. “Presentation Title.” Lecture, Location of Lecture, Month Day, Year.
Park, Lisa. “Effective Working Teams.” Lecture, The Plaza Hotel, New York, NY, January 11, 2011.
In APA
For a presentation with multiple authors, list the authors alphabetically by last name for the full reference citation. The citation will list each author by Last Name, First Initial.
If the PowerPoint has just two authors, separate them with a comma and an ampersand (&). If the PowerPoint has more than two authors, list the authors separated by commas.
Felner, D., & Nguy, A. (2021 April 10-12). The history of Claymation [Slideshow]. Animation Now, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Felner, D., Nguy, A., Becham, G. (2021 April 10-12). The history of Claymation [Slideshow]. Animation Now, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
For an in-text citation for two authors, give both surnames separated by an ampersand (&) followed by a comma and the year of publication or presentation.
For an in-text citation for three or more authors, list the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” followed by a comma and the year of publication or presentation.
In-text citation examples:
(Felner & Nguy, 2021)
(Felner et al., 2021)
In MLA
For a PowerPoint with two presenters or authors, include both names in the full works-cited citation. The names need to be written as follows: First presenter’s Last Name, First Name, and then the second presenter’s First Name and Last Name.
For an in-text citation, simply list the surnames of both presenters.
In-text citation example:
(Nguy and Felner)
Work-cited entry example:
Nguy, Anna and Dominic Felner. The History of Claymation. Apr. 2021. PowerPoint Presentation.
For a PowerPoint with three or more presenters, only list one presenter’s name followed by a comma and “et al.”
For an in-text citation for three or more authors or presenters, list the surname given in the full works-cited citation followed by “et al.”
Nguy, Anna et al. The History of Claymation. Apr. 2021. PowerPoint Presentation.
In APA
If making a full works-cited citation for a slideshow that was made with another program other than PowerPoint, include the medium in brackets instead of PowerPoint.
If the presentation is not in PowerPoint, and you can’t determine what software was used, include the word “slideshow” in brackets in place of PowerPoint.
Nguy, A. (2021 April 10-12). The history of Claymation [Prezi presentation]. Animation Now, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Nguy, A. (2021 April 10-12). The history of Claymation [Slideshow]. Animation Now, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
The in-text citation will be formatted like any other APA in-text citation (author last name, year).
In MLA
At the end of your full works-cited citation, include the program the slideshow was made with, formatted as: ______ Presentation.
If you are uncertain of the program used, end your citation with “slideshow” followed by a period.
Nguy, Anna. The history of Claymation. Apr. 2021. Prezi Presentation.
Nguy, Anna. The history of Claymation. Apr. 2021. Slideshow.
The in-text citation will be formatted like any other MLA in-text citation (author last name).
Hello all paper writers! Take a moment to try our spell checker , or refresh your knowledge on English basics with our EasyBib grammar guides ! Discover a determiner definition , learn what is an adverb , review an interjection list , and more.
Updated April 26, 2021.