Documentation
Q. I am still trying to grasp the whole idea of footnotes using CMOS. Do I put a footnote after everything that I use out of a book even if it’s not a quote? For example, I am writing a paper on Thomas Jefferson and in one of the books I’m using it states that he had six sisters and a younger brother. Do I need to cite that in a footnote? Answer »
Q. How do I introduce a quote in a research paper if I am going to say: Randolph states that “blah-blah-blah (Randolph 2002).” Would this be right, or can I just say: Randolph states that (if I put it in my own words) slavery was unethical (Randolph 2002). With no quotes? With quotes? HELP! Answer »
Q. What is the best way to give a concise citation within a text based on the bibliography at the end? Answer »
Q. I am editing a book of invited papers, where the initials of names are used without periods. In the chapter opening page the author names have the initials before the name and are separated by a space (T C Scott). In the reference list, the initials follow the names and are closed up (Scott, TC). Should the same convention be followed in both places? Answer »
Q. Please help. I need to cite a few lines from a poem, but there are no page numbers in the book of poems. Do I make page numbers up? Do I use poem 1, poem 2? My cites are to be author/date style. For example, after my quote I need to reference it, as in (Grimes 1999, ???). No page numbers! Answer »
Q. Dear CM: I have read everything I could find on text citation and have one remaining question, re section 16.112 (“Author-date citations are usually placed just before a mark of punctuation”). BUT, what if the text ends with a period and quotation marks? “ . . . most of the time (Pynchon 1974, 313).” Is this the correct placement of the period and the quotation marks? Answer »
Q. I am copyediting a scholarly journal with an introduction and essays by multiple authors. I asked an author to provide a citation for a quote from a newspaper article. He replied that no citation was necessary since the quoted material appears in the introduction, not an essay. I can’t find anything in CMOS that exempts authors of introductions from documenting their sources. Who’s right? Answer »
Q. Is it okay to use and cite a draft of an article even if the article isn’t forthcoming in a journal? Answer »
Q. The university I work for produces a magazine and I am charged with organizing our faculty scholarship and honors into Chicago style. Unfortunately, it seems that every faculty member uses a different style and I spend days trying to get journal articles, books, and papers that they have written into a clear format as well as speeches, talks, honors, and awards. Do you have any advice with regard to tackling this? It seems I can never get everything in the correct style format. Answer »
Q. In a published work, we often come across various end-of-chapter material such as “References,” “Bibliography,” etc. What is the exact difference between “References” and “Bibliography”? What do the terms really stand for? Answer »
Q. I am a graduate student in history, and many of my primary sources were printed in Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. During this time, Cambridge and Boston were part of many entities (Massachusetts Bay Colony, Dominion of New England, et cetera). How do I cite the city of publication for these documents? Clearly, I cannot use “Cambridge, MA” since the state did not exist yet! However, I need to distinguish between the two Cambridges, and I don’t want to be anachronistic. A similar problem exists for publications from English cities before the official advent of the “UK.” Answer »
Q. How do you cite speeches? I am using a quote from FDR’s Fireside Chat on May 27, 1941, and I’m not sure how to cite it. Thank you! Answer »
Q. I cite a number of works that were written long ago, such as Locke’s Second Treatise on Government. The straightforward way to cite such a work is by the date of the edition employed (Locke, 1987: 201). I find this ugly and uninformative, however. Is there a permissible way to indicate the date of original publication, such as (Locke, 1689 [1987]: 201)? Thank you for your assistance. Answer »
Q. Hello. When the author uses the same source for five consecutive notations, should I give each a number and list it five times consecutively in the notes, or should I put only one number at the beginning (or end) of the paragraph, thereby listing it only once in the notes? Also, if the notations are apart from one another, I would have to give the source multiple numbers, I’m sure, but then do I re-reference the source, or can I say, for example, “113. See note 72,” or some such? Thanks! Answer »
Q. I’m an editor in an academic publishing house. I’ve been advised by our best-selling author to use “eadem” (fem.) in place of “idem,” where appropriate. Recently I had an instance in which I needed to use “idem” (within the same note) in reference to two male authors. The masculine plural is “eidem.” Then I realized we might potentially need the feminine plural form some day! Yikes! Do we really want to go down this road? Answer »
Q. CMOS 17.99 says to use the city listed for the publisher on the title page or copyright page of the book. If more than one city is listed, use the first one. Our magazine publishes a list of science books in each issue. One of the major publishers is Springer. Most of the Springer books we list have “Berlin Heidelberg New York” on the copyright page—the only place I can find a location listed. We traditionally have listed New York, as we are an American publication. However, some Springer books we list say only “Dordrecht, The Netherlands” on the copyright page. Should we cite different cities depending on what is listed on the copyright page? This looks inconsistent to me—to list different cities for the same publisher. Answer »
Q. I was recently penalized by my history professor for conforming to the CMOS even though we are required to do so. His comment: “Footnotes require a full reference for the first citation of a source—then subsequent footnotes/endnotes utilize the form you employed.” I appealed, citing CMOS 15, section 16.3. In reply, my appeal was summarily denied: “Sorry, but there is no history prof I know who would accept footnotes in that form at the undergraduate or graduate level . . . just the Americans being their usual sloppy selves, I guess. . . . If I teach the course again I will have to present a more rigorous set of rules, of the sort employed in actual practice.” Your comment would be appreciated. Answer »
Q. I am copyediting a scholarly journal in the humanities and have a question about footnotes referencing a Web site. I always check the URL to ensure that it is still accessible and still goes to the appropriate information. Typically the author provides an access date as part of the footnote. My question is: When the URL is still accurate, should I revise the access date to the date that I checked the URL, or leave the author’s original date in place? Answer »
Q. I am doing a research paper for my history class in college and I am supposed to put in the Chicago form of bibliography and citations. I am trying to find the way that I am supposed to put this in but it is proving very difficult at the moment. Can you help on this? Answer »
Q. I am working on a manuscript for a book where the author is quoting a poem he has written, but has not yet published. I believe there should be a citation so as to verify he has not used someone else’s poem without permission and also to give him the credit of being the author. What would a proper citation look like? Answer »
Q. I would like to document, in a bibliography, information received in an academic class. Please send me the format for this application. Thank you for this service. Answer »
Q. How do you cite a resource in a Chicago-styled bibliography that happens to be a B.A. student’s thesis submission for her master’s degree? Answer »
Q. I am including several books by the same author in a bibliography. Two of them were written when his last name was Smith. The last was written after he had changed his name to Jones. He is generally referred to as Jones nowadays. Should I put them all under Jones, even though the name on the title page is otherwise? Answer »
Q. Dear Sir/Madam, all of my resources are from German books, but now I have to write a thesis in English. My question is, if I translated the German book by my own or with a help of software and write it down in English version in my thesis, how can I explain it in the footnote (using Author-Date System for documentation) and in my bibliography? Do I need to mention that the source is translated to English? How can I make a footnote and a bibliography regarding the translation? Could you please give me an example of it? I hope you could help me. Answer »
Q. How do I document a direct quote correctly if I don’t have all the information? Here’s all I have: Catherine Bertini, U.N. World Food Programme. There is no actual book, magazine, journal, or other source named; no date or page number. I’ve combed the Chicago TOC for a clue. Sorry if I’ve missed the obvious. Answer »
