Citing Sources -- Chicago -- Bibliography style

Footnotes

Sections 14.43-14.48 of the Chicago Manual introduces the basic elements of a footnote:  the author's name(s), an article title or book chapter title if needed, the title of the book or journal, and the publication information.  A footnote cition will always follow this basic structure, though there will be some variation of how you construct these different elements depending on whether you are citing a book, book chapter, journal article, or content in some other medium.  You should also note that a footnote citation's construction differs slightly from that of a citation in a bibliography.

Some general rules to keep in mind:

  • The elements of the citation are separated by commas.

  • The author's first name is written out, middle name(s) are written as initials, and last name is written out.  If there are four or more authors, list the first author followed by a comma and then the words "et al."  Et al indicates there are additional authors not listed in the footnote.  

  • Book editors and translators are noted by the abbreviations ed. and trs.

  • All Major Words in a Title are Capitalized.  A subtitle is separated from the title by a colon.

  • The title of a book chapter or an article is "put in quotation marks"

  • The title of a book or journal is italicized

  • The publication information for books is (put in parentheses).  For a journal article, there is a space but no other punctuation between the journal title and the publication information.  Also for a journal article, the volume and issue number are separated by a comma and are not put in parentheses, though the year is.  If the journal lists a month or a month and day of publication, include it before the year of publication.  For further info on citing journal publication information, see sections 14.171-186 of the Manual.

  • If you directly quote an author's words, put the page number of the book or article on which those words are found after the publication information.  Alternately, write "line" or "lines" and then the line numbers for plays or poetry.

    • For books, type a comma and a space after the closed parenthesis of the publication information, then type the page number(s). 
    • For journal articles, type a colon and a space after the closed parenthesis of the publication information, then type the page number(s).

Example taken from Carrier, David. The Aesthetics of Comics. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000. Refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for more information on footnotes.

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