Documentation
Q. I work for the Texas State Library Talking Book Program. We serve people who have disabilities that prevent them from reading standard print or that prevent them from holding a book or turning pages. I have a blind patron who contacted us with a question about how to cite a Braille book in Chicago/Turabian style. Is there a standard format for how to cite Braille books? Since she is working on her dissertation she wants to cite things as fully and completely as possible to make sure that she is providing all the necessary information to her committee and in her published paper. Answer »
Q. How would one document an interview? Answer »
Q. Hello. I have a question regarding reviews. In the 15th edition of CMOS , 17.202 addresses the citation of a review in a newspaper. I was wondering about the format of a review in a periodical. How do you treat a review with a title? Thank you so much. Answer »
Q. In our reference section, websites will not show dates (of access or site creation). Where would you then place a website entry (without a date) within an alphabetized entry that has numerous em-dash entries by the same author? Thank you. Answer »
Q. How do you cite quotations in the paragraph and in the endnote or footnote? Answer »
Q. Hi. I need to list resources in many documents, and sometimes URL listings are not enough. How can I find author information at websites? Answer »
Q. I was wondering how I would cite an educational movie. Thank you. Answer »
Q. I would like to quote a sentence from my textbook that was initially a quote from another source. Which source do I document? Do I document my textbook or the original source (or both)? Answer »
Q. How many lines of a published poem or song may be quoted in an article or book manuscript without having to obtain the author or lyric writer’s permission? And, what if the author or lyric writer is deceased? Answer »
Q. I am a writer and occasionally quote material from my own works, some that have been published and some that are not published but are available as working papers. Should I handle these quotations the same as I would those of other authors? What about paraphrased material—do I need to reference that? Does it make a difference if the material is published or unpublished, and if I hold the copyright or the publisher holds the copyright? Answer »
Q. I am confused about how to cite a video recording of a live performance (an opera). It was originally performed and recorded by a Metropolitan Opera Television production in 1991, but a 2000 version (a rerelease in DVD format) is being distributed by another organization. It also comes in the 1991 version in the VHS format. It is important to distinguish between the two for a variety of reasons, especially if someone were looking for the DVD. The 2000 DVD is in German, but can have subtitles in English, Chinese, and French. How would I cite the 2000 DVD? Answer »
Q. How many works to include in a single citation? The following in-text citation includes too many works, to my taste: (Hong & Kuo 1999; Holton 2001; Rowden 2001; Reichert 1998; Gravin 1994; Holt et al. 2000; Griego et al. 2000; Thomsen & Hoest 2001; Goh 2003; Porth et al. 1999; Gardiner & Whiting 1997; Watkins & Marsick 1998). Does anyone have a rule that can be helpful in deciding (1) how many works are too many? (2) what you do with the works that have to be deleted? Suggest incorporating them elsewhere? Answer »
Q. What is the proper way to reference an e-mail in a report? Answer »
Q. When writing an academic paper that is based on the analysis of one book, do you need to footnote each sentence that paraphrases an idea from the book or does the fact that it is known and stated that the entire paper is an analysis of the book’s themes sufficient? Answer »
Q. I have a number of federal government publications to cite in endnotes, and it seems I have more information about the publication than I know where to put. For example, is it better to cite the authors listed or the publishing government agency as the author? If I list the specific individuals, should I list the agency in the publication information, i.e., “(Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, 1985)”? And if the agency is best listed under publication information, which level of the agency is best to cite? For example, one document was published by the Department of HHS, Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, Division of Vital Statistics. (These are the hierarchy levels.) Finally, if publication numbers are available for these documents, should I include them? If so, where? After the title, and before publication information? Thanks in advance for your help. Answer »
Q. How would you treat web page citations where access to the web pages is restricted? Answer »
Q. How do you determine which publisher to cite if the book has had more than one publisher over time, and which publication date do you use: the latest edition/publication date, or when the book was first published? Answer »
Q. It is not uncommon in the literature of film studies today to have epigraphs that feature a choice bit of dialog from one of the characters in a film, and often the author of the screenplay is not given, but only the film title, character’s name, sometimes parenthetically the actor who played the part, and year of the film’s release. Similarly if one wants to quote a choice bit of dialog from fiction, say, one of Sherlock Holmes’ admonitions to Watson, does one credit Holmes and/or Conan Doyle? CMOS is mute on such attributions in the context of epigraphs. Answer »
Q. I am attempting to help someone out with their bibliography and I, of course, have received all the difficult entries. I have a three-page document that is an Executive Summary; it is not a published work, nor does it have any “publisher” information, but it does list authors. How would I cite this? Would I follow the rules for citing an unpublished, duplicated piece? Answer »
Q. I’m in the process of finalizing my Ph.D. dissertation, and I’m struggling with two minor stylistic issues: (1) How should I handle citations within a parenthesis when it begins with e.g.? Should the year be enclosed in parentheses or not? That is, “. . . (e.g., Porter (1987))” or “(e.g., Porter 1987).” (2) Is there an elegant way to refer to a page or section in the current document so that the cross-reference is not confused with an external reference. For example, the text may read: “According to Porter (1987), strategy can be defined as. . . . This definition is used in the current research (see also p. 49).” This reference could be interpreted as page 49 in Porter (1987) or as page 49 in the dissertation. Answer »
Q. Perhaps you can help me. How do I format a second footnote for an article in an edited anthology (more than two editors), when the anthology already has been cited fully in another footnote for a different article in the same anthology? Must I write the complete citation for the anthology for every article contained within it? Answer »
Q. I have searched for the answer to this question but have not found it discussed in your text. I am writing a dissertation in the social sciences. I cite to references in parentheses in the text in the format (Smith 1999) with full citations contained in a bibliography. I sometimes cite to the same reference a few sentences later. I am wondering if I can use the abbreviation (ibid.) instead of repeating the exact same citation (Smith 1999)? Answer »
Q. Do I need to repeat author names and year of publication in the same paragraph if I have already mentioned and referenced the authors at the beginning of the paragraph? Answer »
Q. I am using the Chicago style to cite a magazine article. If there is a “?” at the end of the article title, do I still need to use a period before the quotation marks? Answer »
Q. I am attempting to proofread and fix the style of the endnotes of a book on communications for a generally humanities audience. My problem is that the author of the book is a lawyer and has cited many law review articles that he considers governed by the Bluebook style. Should I use the general style for citing periodicals in the sixteenth edition of CMOS (paragraphs 14.170–217) for the legal articles? As it is, the humanities articles are in CMOS format and the law review articles are in Bluebook format. This hybrid style doesn’t seem acceptable to me. Please help. Answer »