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A Brief Primer to Citing Sources in Chicago Style 

Key Points in This Lesson
» Chicago citation style requires an in-text citation coordinated with a footnote or endnote.
 
» Use the Chicago Manual of Style (17th) to format all elements of your manuscript: title page, margins (1-inch on all sides), type size (11- or 12 pt.) and line spacing (double spacing). See video in this thread.

Whenever you use a source in a paper, you must refer to it twice: once as a note and once in your bibliography. With the Chicago style, you have the option to use either footnotes (bottom of each page) or endnotes (all notes at end of paper).


Citation for a Direct Quote
Whenever you use an author's exact words (direct quotation), you must provide a citation to the source quoted at that exact point in your text.

How to Cite a Direct Quote

Original Text (from Rachel Adele, Women in the Media, 1999)
"Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for men and women, but the media have made it seem that breast cancer is what women should most fear."

Direct Quote as Used in Your Paper
            Women have been misled, writes media critic Rachel Adele:  "Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for men and women, but the media have made it seem that breast cancer is what women should most fear." 1
__________________________________________________________

Note (Footnote or Endnote)
          1. Rachel Adele,  Women in the Media:  The Power of Mainstream Stereotypes in American Pop Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 28.

Subsequent References
            2. Adele, 31.  
_________________________________________________________

Bibliography
Adele, Rachel. Women in the Media: The Power of Mainstream
           Stereotypes in American Pop Culture. Chicago: University
           of Chicago Press, 1999.
 


Please Note:
 

  1. A signal phrase such as Women have been misled, writes media critic Rachel Adele: is required to integrate the quote into the flow of your writing.  Quotations must be attached to one of your sentences with either a comma or a colon.
  2. The superscript number at the end of the quotation refers to a footnote at the bottom of the page or an endnote at the end of your paper. Check with your instructor as to whether you should use footnotes or endnotes. 
  3. The sentence period goes in front of the final quotation marks in American schools. 


Citation for a Paraphrase
Whenever you use information from a source, even though you do not quote the source, you still must provide a citationto the source at that exact point in your text.

 

How to Cite a Paraphrase

Original Text (from Rachel Adele, Women in the Media, 1999)
"Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for men and women, but the media have made it seem that breast cancer is what women should most fear."

Your Phrasing (some key words repeated)
            Although lung cancer kills more women than any other type of cancer, the media have nonetheless led women to believe that breast cancer deaths are more common.1
___________________________________________________________

Note (Footnote or Endnote)
  1. Rachel Adele,  Women in the Media:  The Power of Mainstream Stereotypes in American Pop Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 28.

Subsequent References
              2. Adele, 31.  
_________________________________________________________
 

Bibliography
Adele, Rachel. Women in the Media: The Power of Mainstream
           Stereotypes in American Pop Culture. Chicago: University
           of Chicago Press, 1999.


Please Note:
 

  1. In a paraphrase, it is usually necessary to repeat some key words from the original source.
  2. Although a successful paraphrase may repeat key words, it is distinguished from the original source by your unique phrasing or structure.
  3. The note's superscript number goes after and above the period.

 
"But My Source is Not a Book." Not a Problem.
The note and bibliography citations above are for a book used as a source. Increasingly, today's research papers include a variety of electronic sources. Not a problem. The same principle applies: Whenever you use a source in a paper, regardless of the type of source it is, you must refer to it twice: once as a note and once in your bibliography.


What Goes in a Citation? The Chicago Manual of Style Online
The Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) lists over 100 different types of print and electronic sources, each of which has a unique citation format.  To help you deal with the many different formats,  there is the free Chicago-Style's Citation Quick Guide, a web resource maintained by the Chicago Style organization. However, the Chicago-Style's Citation Quick Guide is limited to about 20 basic source types.  The site does offer a 30-day free trial to the complete online version of the Chicago Manual of Style(15th edition).  


Academic & Commercial Web Sites
You can find many excellent university and college web sites that provide model Chicago-style formats for a wide range of source types you will encounter. Always be sure to check the month/year of the most recent update since the Chicago Style guidelines are added to and revised on a frequent basis.  One of the most comprehensive listings of Chicago-style formats and manuscript guidelines can be found at Michael Harvey's The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing.  


In the End
No single web site, citation machine or handbook contains a model format for every type of source you may find. Therefore it is important to keep in mind the basic components for any citation so that you can make informed choices about the source information you provide. The basic rule:  More information is better than less. The goal of any citation is to help the reader evaluate the source and possibly to retrieve it, if he or she wishes. Whether it is a note or a bibliography entry, your citations should contain the following basic elements in approximately this order:

Author (or editor, translator, compiler in place of author)
Title of work
Title of Periodical or web site
Volume/issue
Pages
Place of publication
Publisher
Retrieval information
Access date 


Blue = all sources
Purple = periodicals and web sites
Green =  periodicals
Brown = books
Red = digital sources

If you are using a source that does not provide a piece of information for one of the slots, simply skip to the next.  For example, if you are citing an article that does not list an author, your citation should begin with the title of the article.


Sample Citations
The following citations are based on the models provided in the Chicago-Style's Citation Quick Guide. For each source a note citation (N) and bibliography citation (B) are provided.

chicagocitationtable