
How do I cite a tweet? - mxfh
http://www.mla.org/style/handbook_faq/cite_a_tweet
======
0x0
How about just linking to the tweet on the twitter.com website:
<https://twitter.com/ReallyVirtual/status/64780730286358528>

Or the JSON API, which gives _exact_ times including timezones:
[http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/show/64780730286358528.jso...](http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/show/64780730286358528.json)

~~~
cleverjake
I assume you are no t familiar with MLA formatting -
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_MLA_Style_Manual>.

It is a style format for written works (newspapers, academic papers, books
etc).

This is apparently an accepted form of citing a tweet in an official document.
A link does not do anything, as it can be deleted.

~~~
Firehed
Anyone looking to actually verify the source (this is at least partially why
they're cited, right?) is going to have difficulty locating the original tweet
without the permalink. The original tweet, along with the link, can be deleted
- but that's true for any web resource.

Ultimately, I wonder why tweets are cited any differently than any other web
resource. I'd find the following more useful:

    
    
      https://twitter.com/newsycombinator/status/292799867372310529
    

than MLA's recommended tweet style:

    
    
      news.yc popular (newsycombinator). "How do I cite a tweet? http://j.mp/ygeHyP" 19 Jan 2013, 5:05 p.m. Tweet.
    

I guess it's handy to have the full body of the tweet right in the citation,
but that would be true for any short quote from any resource - both on and
offline.

~~~
lsc
I think the assumption is that the tweets will go away. Look at the twitter
search; I mean, they can't seem to search tweets more than a few days/weeks
old. Clearly twitter does not place a high priority on keeping historical
data.

~~~
Firehed
They don't prioritize _finding_ historical data, which is why the permalink
URL is all the more important. There are (or at least were) third-party
services dedicated solely to finding older Twitter data.

Again, this is no different than any web resource. We even have an HTTP header
specifically to indicate content has been deleted.

------
spullara
Citing a tweet without including its globally unique ID seems terrible.
Usernames an be easily changed. Copying the entire contents of the tweet into
the citing seems odd as well.

~~~
Osmium
> Copying the entire contents of the tweet into the citing seems odd as well.

On the contrary, it builds in redundancy. One of the virtues of Twitter is
that this approach is feasible because of their character limit, and it means
that should anything happen to Twitter (or the internet) in the future, that
anything of cultural importance* is preserved. It also allows the tweet to be
read offline or in countries where Twitter might be censored or banned, but
where the paper is available. Proper citation is just to enable verification
if necessary.

(*though admittedly this is probably a very small subset of all tweets)

~~~
pseut
>One of the virtues of Twitter is that this approach is feasible because of
their character limit

Photos? Videos?

------
bdg
I absolutely detest MLA style citation. It's overly complex and needlessly
adds information where it is not readily useful in context.

~~~
artursapek
It's a big money-making scheme. They change it all the time to sell more style
guides. Complete bullshit. I hate MLA.

~~~
0x0
Judging from the linked excerpt, they don't seem particularly clued in,
either.

------
waxjar
Terrible decision. A tweet is just a string of 140 characters or less on a web
page. Rules already exist for citing web pages, they seem to work fine.

~~~
whatshisface
Tweets have a known level of volatility and a strict maximum length. Websites
are 100% unpredictable. Why not take advantage of the known tweet properties
to optimize this case?

------
mxfh
I think the most troubling feature is the time convention "time zone of the
reader". How should anyone make a valid assumption about that? I think its a
better practice to include a common time zone abbreviation.

~~~
blublubblub
I don't understand why the suggestion wasn't to just convert to UTC. That
would solve the problem...

------
mtraven
I think this is the only MLA style that is tied to the offerings of a single
commercial entity. That seems weird to me. Does Twitter own the idea of a
tweet or has it escaped into the general culture?

~~~
msutherl
Strange indeed that they use the word "Tweet" when there are many other
microblogging services, including Facebook. How does one cite Status.net?

~~~
werid
"[...] and the medium of publication (Tweet)."

~~~
msutherl
Does that imply that you can just make up a word for whatever the medium of
publication is?

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jmix
It's strange that when you cite a tweet, MLA wants you to include the tweet
contents, whereas for every other citation, they want you to embed just enough
info to form a pointer to the actual content. Tweet citations are closer to
footnotes than to citations.

Doesn't type check.

~~~
taejo
Other resources have titles. For a tweet, the title is the contents.

------
bennyg
What about other specific online media? How do I cite a Reddit comment? An
insightful meme in QuickMeme (the text could be helpful and part of an overall
commentary, regardless of how you feel about memes in general)?

I feel the best thing is like an online source - aka like taking a 140
character quote from a blog post. MLA feel differently, obviously.

------
drucken
Alternatives,

APA:

\- [http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/10/how-to-cite-
twitte...](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/10/how-to-cite-twitter-and-
facebook-part-i.html)

\- [http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/10/how-to-cite-
twitte...](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/10/how-to-cite-twitter-and-
facebook-part-ii.html)

Chicago:

\-
[http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Do...](http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0164.html)

\- <http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html>

IEEE:

\- <http://www.york.ac.uk/integrity/ieee.html>

------
moflo
To obtain a stable link I've seen some publishers use a service called WebCite
(<http://www.webcitation.org>). It archives the referenced page as the author
would have seen it at the time of publication.

------
facorreia
From the MLA Style Manual[1]:

"Begin the entry in the works-cited list with the author’s real name and, in
parentheses, user name, if both are known and they differ. If only the user
name is known, give it alone.

Next provide the entire text of the tweet in quotation marks, without changing
the capitalization. Conclude the entry with the date and time of the message
and the medium of publication (Tweet). For example:

Athar, Sohaib (ReallyVirtual). “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM
(is a rare event).” 1 May 2011, 3:58 p.m. Tweet."

[1] <http://www.mla.org/style/style_faq/mlastyle_cite_a_tweet>

------
lmm
Why would one ever cite a tweet? You can't write a useful secondary source in
140 characters; surely a tweet is only ever going to be a primary source, like
an interview or experiment that you've conducted yourself? While we might
include transcripts or raw data in an appendix, we don't really cite such
things per se.

~~~
travisp
Wasn't the example the MLA gave a pretty good one? It was a tweet by a
resident of Abbottabad noticing a helicopter, which later turned out to be US
Special Forces coming to kill Osama Bin Laden.

~~~
hnriot
Some pretty impressive things have been said in much less than 140 characters.

~~~
duaneb
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

~~~
shitlord
:(

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tantalor
Is it really a citation if you include the entire text? Seems more like a
copy.

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d0gsbody
Dammit, MLA, you had one job...

This is a terrible citation format. It should cite the URL and/or the name of
the publishing company (Twitter).

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blankenship
As a sidenote, I find it humorous that the MLA site can’t be bothered to use
real quote marks when quoting something.

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lwf
MLA has been generally allergic to URLs, which I find sort of obnoxious.

------
t1
Why would you want to do this?

