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Citing Your Sources

A guide to using citation styles effectively and efficiently

About Turabian Style

This guide is a quick introduction to Chicago/Turabian citation style and common citations. Be sure to consult the Turabian Manual : Chicago Style for students and researchers or the online quick guide for detailed standards and procedures.

As a general rule, use Turabian/Chicago style in history and business.

There are two different systems for citing sources in Chicago/Turabian: Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date. Be sure to check your assignment to determine which citation style you should use.

Is Turabian the Same as Chicago Style?

Almost.

Turabian = Kate L. Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations

Turabian is the student version of The Chicago Manual of Style, aimed at high school and college students who are writing papers, theses, and dissertations that are not intended for publication. The Chicago Manual of Style is aimed at professional scholars and publishers. The two books are compatible; both are official Chicago style.

Chicago = The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers (CMOS)

Turabian is written in Chicago style, but it’s much shorter than CMOS. The citation styles are the same in both books. Turabian gives paper formatting rules and covers the research and writing process in detail, whereas CMOS omits such advice and focuses on the publication process.

Quick Guides to Turabian

Turabian Style Citation Quick Guide

 

Notes and Bibliography

The Notes and Bibliography system is popular in the humanities—including literature, history, and the arts. This system uses numbered footnotes or endnotes that correspond to superscript numbers in the text. A full citation list on a Bibliography page concludes the document.

The following examples illustrate the notes and bibliography style. Sample notes show full citations followed by shortened forms that would be used after the first citation. Sample bibliography entries follow the notes.

General format:

Notes

1. First and Last Name(s) of Authors, Title of the Source, and other publication details like the publisher, journal information, date, page numbers, etc. 

In the notes, elements of a reference are separate by a comma. A book publisher and/or year are included in parenthesis ().

Shortened Notes

2. Ibid., page number(s).

3. Last Name, Shortened Title, page number(s). 

Use "Ibid.," which means "in the same place," when you are citing the same source as the immediately preceding note. Use a shortened note the second time you cite the same source elsewhere.

Bibliography

Last Name, First Name and First Name Last Name. "Title of an Article." Title of the Source and other publication details like the publisher, journal information, date, page numbers, etc. 

In the bibliography at the end of your paper, elements of a reference are separated by a period. Include a comma , before the year.

I'm citing a...

Author-Date In-text Citations

The Author-Date system is more common in the physical, natural, and social sciences.

  • It uses parenthetical citations in the text to reference the source's author's last name and the year of publication. Each parenthetical citation corresponds to an entry on a References page that concludes the document. In these regards, Author-Date is very similar to, for instance, APA style.

Basic Format:

(Author Year, Page Number)

I'm citing a source with...

2 Authors

Connect both authors' last names with "and," followed by the year, followed by a comma and the page number you are citing.

(Baer and Long 2004, 167)

3 Authors

List each author's last name separated with a comma, with "and" before the third author, followed by the year, followed by a comma and the page number you are citing.

(Mulvey, Rogers, and van Den Oever 2015, 78)

4 or More Authors

List the first author's last name, then include "et al." for "and others."

(Ashing‐Giwa et al. 2018, 408)

No Author or Date

List the title of the work in quotation marks and use "n.d." for "no date."

("Conversation," n.d.)

Author-Date Reference List

Basic Format:

Author Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. Year. Title of Longer Work or "Title of Shorter Work." Publication details like the publisher, editors, journal information, page numbers, etc.. URL or DOI.

I'm citing a...

News/Magazine Article

  1. Author(s) List the first author's last name first, followed by their first name and middle name or initial if listed. Then list all other authors as normal, separate them with a comma, and use "and" before the last author.
  2. Year. Include the year the article was published.
  3. "Title of the Article" Use headline capitalization and quotation marks.
  4. Title of the Newspaper or Magazine Use title capitalization and italicize, followed by a comma.
  5. Date Include the Month Day, Year the article was published.
  6. URL Include a link to the article if available online.
Petrusich, Amanda. 2020. "Taylor Swift's Self-Scrutiny in 'Miss Americana." The New Yorker, Februrary 4, 2020. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/taylor-swifts-self-scrutiny-in-miss-americana.

Book

  1. Author(s) List the first author's last name first, followed by their first name and middle name or initial if listed.
  2. Year Include the year in which the book you are citing was published.
  3. Title of the Book Use headline capitalization and italics.
  4. Place of publication: List the state (if from the U.S.) or the country associated with the published, then a colon :.
  5. Publisher List the publisher of the book. This is usually listed on the copyright page.
Angelou, Maya. 2002. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House.

Book Chapter with Editor(s)

  1. Author(s) of the Chapter List the first author's last name first, followed by their first name and middle name or initial if listed. Then list all other authors as normal, separate them with a comma, and use "and" before the last author.
  2. Year Include the year in which the book you are citing was published.
  3. "Title of the Chapter or Essay" Use headline capitalization and quotation marks.
  4. Title of the Book Include "In" then the the book in headline capitalization and italics.
  5. Name of the Editor(s) Include "edited by" or "translated by" in the bibliography before the name of the editor(s) or translator, followed by a comma.
  6. Page numbers Include the page range of the chapter you are citing.
  7. Place of publication: List the state (if from the U.S.) or the country associated with the published, then a colon :.
  8. Publisher List the publisher of the book. This is usually listed on the copyright page.
Richard Rodriguez. 2000. "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood." In The Best American Essays of the Century, edited by Joyce Carol Oats, 447-466. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Webpage

  1. AuthorInclude the author, or if there is no specific author, list the organization responsible for the website.
  2. Date If there is a specific date, list it here. If there is no date, use "n.d." for "no date."
  3. "Title of the Page" Use headline capitalization and quotation marks.
  4. Date If there is a date of last review or last modified, list it here. If there is no date, list the date you accessed the web page.
  5. URL.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. n.d. "Conversation." Accessed March 10, 2020. https://www.lacma.org/learn/conservation.

Formatting Your Paper

How do I add a footnote using Word?

1. Go to References.

2. Select Insert footnote.

4. Then, add your notes citation next to the appropriate number.

Hanging Indent Gif

View instructions on how to format a hanging indent here.

Attributions

Creative Commons License CC by NC 4.0 This page was created by Erica Huff with excerpts from CSUDH University Library's Citation Guide used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

 

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