How do you quote from a YouTube video?

Answer 1

I will assume the use of a video on YouTube is scholarly. You must be sure the information in the video cannot be found in a more scholarly place such as a listserv, database or written publication. If no other way can be found to ascertain the information you need, then please ask permission. It's alright to discuss this kind of thing with the instructor of the course. The instructor can give you guidance on how they would like you to quote and cite the work. But, if you want some guidance, here it goes.

Is the paper in MLA or APA or a special scientific format? In-text citations or footnotes or end notes? Let's start with MLA. If you must use an online reference MLA no longer requires that you provide a URL. If the video is a movie television show or clip from a movie the citation begins with the name of the movie, the director, distributer, year of release and medium. If a performer in the video is of special interest, you can include them in the cite after the director with a heading of (Perf.) and if you have more than one performer they need not be in alphabetical order. End with the medium whether it be Film. DVD. MP3. JPEG. or Television. If YouTube is the ONLY place to find this material you will need to combine the movie information with an online source citation. If you think the URL is necessary, just put the URL in some Angle brackets. I have written the URL twice with angle brackets but each time I do, answers.com removes it due to programming language interference. So this> is an angle bracket< and put them around the URL just as it is written in the APA style.

If this is to be in APA format you begin with the producer, director, date of release, country of origin and distributer or the studio that produced the motion picture. If it is a television program the writer of the episode is cited first. APA still requires a URL in many instances. Add the URL by citing, (Retrieved from http://www.YouTube.com/silly-string-fight) and do not put a period on the end unless the URL has a period. All in-text citations must reference back to the first word of the works cited or reference page. In MLA it is the title of the movie while in APA it is the name of the producer. I urge you to speak to your instructor and look for another way to cite this information.