Looking through online Chicago citation manuals, you may end up having more questions than answers. Chicago citation machines happen to be too complicated as well. Confused and overloaded with all this information, you may wonder if there wasn’t any easier way to use the Chicago citation style in your papers.
Fortunately, there is. Look at the brief explanations and clear Chicago citation examples provided below if you want to write exceptional papers.
Chicago citation: two styles
According to the 16th (latest) edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, there are two main styles of documentation: the Notes-Bibliography system and the Author-Date system. The first one is used mainly in History and Art, and the second one is used in sciences.
Notes-Bibliography system: you include only a small superscript number after each citation in the body of your papers. The corresponding more detailed information about the author and publication should be found in a footnote (or an endnote) with the same number as the one used in the text. Add a bibliography at the end of your paper (an alphabetical list of resources starting on a new page). Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page they are on. Endnotes are placed on a new page at the end of your paper. Ask your tutors whether they prefer footnotes or endnotes.
Note: footnotes and endnotes are formatted identically, but Chicago style bibliography is formatted differently.
Author-Date system: you include brackets in the text, containing between them brief information about the author, date and page. These brackets and their contents are called parenthetical citations. Put more detailed information into the reference list (an alphabetical list of resources starting on a new page at the end of the paper).
Chicago citations: a book
To understand Chicago style citations, it is better to see some examples than to read the rules:
| First footnote or endnote for this source | Second or subsequent footnote or endnote for this source | Parenthetical citation | Bibliographic entry or reference list entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. James Cook, Lawrence Glickman and Michael O’Malley, eds., The Cultural Turn in US History: Past, Present and Future (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008), 34. | 2. Cook, Glickman and O’Malley, The Cultural Turn in US History, 47. | (Cook, Glickman and O’Malley 2008, 34) | Cook, James, Lawrence Glickman and Michael O’Malley, eds., The Cultural Turn in US History: Past, Present and Future. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008. |
Good news: If you cite the same source in two subsequent footnotes or endnotes, you may use the Latin word ‘ibid’ instead of the author’s name before the page number in the second and subsequent notes (for example: Ibid, 34).
It is translated from Latin as ‘in the same place’.
Chicago citations: an article
| First footnote or endnote for this source | Second or subsequent footnote or endnote for this source | Parenthetical citation | Bibliographic entry or reference list entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3. Alfredo Artiles and Elizabeth Kozleski. “Beyond Convictions: Interrogating Culture, History, and Power in Inclusive Education.” Language Arts 84, no. 4 (March 2007): 352. | 4. Alfredo Artiles and Elizabeth Kozleski. “Beyond Convictions: Interrogating Culture, History, and Power in Inclusive Education,” 355. | (Artiles and Kozleski 2007, 352) | Artiles, Alfredo and Elizabeth Kozleski. “Beyond Convictions: Interrogating Culture, History, and Power in Inclusive Education.” Language Arts 84, no. 4 (March 2007): 351 – 358. |
Good news: If there are more than three authors, you do not need to write all of them in notes. Write the name of the first author and add ‘et al.’ (Charlotte Smith et al.). However, you should write all authors in the bibliographic entry.
Chicago citations: a website
| First footnote or endnote for this source | Second or subsequent footnote or endnote for this source | Parenthetical citation | Bibliographic entry or reference list entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5. “Google Privacy Policy,” last modified Oct. 20, 2011, http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ | 6. “Google Privacy Policy.” | (“Google Privacy Policy”). | Google. “Google Privacy Policy.” Last modified Oct. 20, 2011. http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ |
So, all you need to do is to select Chicago citation system, find the table with your type of source and use these clear examples.
Thanks so much for this superb post on using Chicago citation style! After reading the provided guidelines, I see light at the end of the tunnel in using Chicago style citations in a proper way! Thanks again!!!