How to Cite a Tweet in Harvard Style

What is a Tweet?

A ‘Tweet’ is a specific term used for Twitter-only posts that are created on one’s Twitter profile. Tweets are a special form of text. They are not a paragraph from a journal article, a movie’s written script or any of such sources. However, citing and referencing it is quite like citing and referencing other internet sources.

In-Text Citation and Reference Format with Example

In Harvard style, Tweets are cited and referenced according to the general format given below:

In-text citation: (Tweet writer’s surname Year Tweet was written on Twitter) OR

Tweet writer’s surname (Year)

Reference list entry: Tweet writer’s author surname Initial(s) Year, Title of the tweet in italics, Extra information such as: Type of medium, Publisher (if applicable), Place of publication (if applicable), URL [Accessed date].

For example:

In-text citation: Tony Abbott (2014) shared on Twitter…

Reference list entry: Abbott, T 2014, ‘A momentous, historic day’, TonyAbbottMHR, Twitter, 16 June, https://twitter.com/tonyabbottmhr [Accessed 23 September 2015].

Note: In case the tweet was written and published by a company, institution, or some other form of a group such as a television series’ official Twitter page, their name is used instead of the author’s surname.