Having discovered the inadequacy of Purdue’s coverage of Chicago Style footnotes, here are guidelines for all the types of sources you’re likely to use this semester. The first section of this page covers footnote creation; further down you’ll see guidelines for creating bibliographic entries of the sort you’ll need for the upcoming annotated Bibliography Assignment.
Near the bottom of this post, you’ll find a Practice Quiz that’s due at the end of this week, as well as a graded Quiz due early next week.
Footnotes
Book written by a single author, or by a team of writers:
1. Barbara Ehrenreich, The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment (New York: Anchor, 1987), 34.
Article from a Book Collection:
Remarks: be sure to cite the article’s actual author, and not the book’s editor; distinguish between the “article title” and the book title.
2. Richard A. Wright, “ ‘I Can Pass Right Through Solid Matter!’: How the Flash Upheld American Values While Breaking the Speed Limit,” in Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns, ed. Chris York and Rafiel York (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012), 56.
Article from an Academic Journal:
Remarks: note the volume and number of the journal issue (9 and 2 in the example below); note the year but not the publisher in parenthesis.
3. Martin Baker, “The Reception of Joe Sacco’s Palestine,” Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 9, no. 2 (2012): 59.
Article from a Magazine:
Remarks: no publisher information at all.
4. Robert Coughlan, “Changing Roles in Modern Marriage,” Life Dec 24, 1956, 108.
Article from a Newspaper:
Remarks: if relevant, note the newspaper edition and section before the page number, as shown here.
5. Charles Poole, “Books of the Times,” New York Times, June 3, 1958, sec. A.
Article from an online periodical:
Remarks: leave out the URL if the periodical is famous (e.g. The New Yorker); unlike MLA, include “http://” or “https://” at the start of any url.
6. Brian Gallagher, “ Why Women Choose Differently at Work,” Nautilus, Iss. 58, March 1, 2018, http://nautil.us/issue/58/self/why-women-choose-differently-at-work.
Lecture or talk by a professor or tour guide:
7. Christopher Rhodes, Lecture, Feb 14, 2020, Boston University.
Anonymous Source:
Remarks: simply leave off the author and start the entry with the title. Here, for example, is a newspaper article with no listed author. “E8” means section E, page 8.
8. “Topics,” New York Times June 15, 1958, E8.
Authoritative Website:
Remarks: start by listing the author, if any; provide a URL unless the website is commonplace (i.e. wikipedia, NYTimes, etc.); provide the date of publication if available; provide the date that you accessed the site if the page is dynamic and/or in a state of flux.
9. “Cops and no Counsellors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is Harming Students,” ACLU, www.aclu.org/report/cops-and-no-counselors.
Quizzes on Chicago Footnotes
Bibliography
Whereas MLA uses a list of sources at the end of the essay as part of its system of source citation (the “Works Cited” list), Chicago Style footnotes contain all the information necessary for someone to trace your sources. This makes the bibliography a separate entity, something that need not be included with your essay, or which can be generated as an independent assignment.
Chicago-Style bibliographic entries look a LOT like MLA Works Cited entries. Two notable differences: the book publisher is here preceded by the city of publication, and the page range of an article in a book collection runs before, not after the book’s place, publisher and year.
Examples: here are the same six works, presented in bibliographic format (note that the order has changed, since bibliographies are alphabetized by author last name).
Baker, Martin. “The Reception of Joe Sacco’s Palestine.” Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 9, no. 2 (2012): 58-73.
“Cops and no Counsellors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is Harming Students.” ACLU. www.aclu.org/report/cops-and-no-counselors.
Coughlan, Robert. “Changing Roles in Modern Marriage.” Life, Dec 24, 1956, 108-118.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment. New York: Anchor, 1987.
Gallagher, Brian. “ Why Women Choose Differently at Work.” Nautilus. Iss. 58. March 1, 2018. http://nautil.us/issue/58/self/why-women-choose-differently-at-work.
Poole, Charles. “Books of the Times.” New York Times, June 3, 1958, 29.
Rhodes, Christopher. Lecture. Feb 14, 2020. Boston University.
“Topics.” New York Times, June 15, 1958, E8.
Wright, Richard A. “ ‘I Can Pass Right Through Solid Matter!’: How the Flash Upheld American Values While Breaking the Speed Limit.” In Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946-1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns, edited by Chris York and Rafiel York, 55-67. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012.