how to cite essay in a book chicago style

Chicago/Turabian Citation

• Citing a Book

Basic Chapter Citation

Example chapter of a book, example chapter of an ebook, example foreword/preface of a book.

• Citing an Article
• Citing a Webpage
• Additional Resources

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Footnote/Endnote

Author First M. Last Name, "Chapter or Essay Title," in  Book Title , ed. First M. Last Name (Place of Publication: Publisher, date), page cited.

Short version: Author Last Name, "Chapter or Essay Title (shortened if necessary)," page cited.

Bibliography

Author Last Name, First M.   "Chapter or Essay Title."  In  Book Title ,   edited by First M. Last Name,  page range.   Place of Publication: Publisher, date.

Eric Charry, "Music and Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa," in  The History of Islam in Africa , eds. Nehwmia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels  (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2000), 550.

Short version: Charry, "Music and Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa," 550.

Charry, Eric.   "Music and Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa."  In  The History of Islam in Africa ,   edited by Nehwmia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels,   545-573.   Athens, OH: Ohio  University Press, 2000.

Alan Liu, "Where is Cultural Criticism in the Digital Humanities?," in  Debates in the Digital Humanities , ed. Matthew K. Gold (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013), accessed January 23, 2014,  http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/20. 

Short version: Liu, "Where is Cultural Criticism."

Liu, Alan.  "Where is Cultural Criticism in the Digital Humanities?."   In  Debates in the Digital Humanities ,   edited by Matthew K. Gold.   Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.   A ccessed January 23, 2014.   http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/20. 

Strobe Talbott, foreword to   Beyond Tianamen: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations 1989-2000 , by Robert L. Suettinger (Washington, D. C.: Brookings Institute Press, 2003), x.

Short version: Talbott, foreword, x.

Talbott, Strobe.   Foreword to   Beyond Tianamen: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations 1989-2000 ,   by Robert L. Suettinger,  ix-x.   Washington, D. C.: Brookings Institute  Press, 2003.

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CITATION QUICK GUIDE

Source citations in the Turabian manual come in two varieties: (1) notes and bibliography (or simply notes) and (2) author-date. These two systems are also sometimes referred to as Chicago-style citations, because they are the same as the ones presented in The Chicago Manual of Style .

If you already know which system to use, follow one of the links above to see sample citations for a variety of common sources. Otherwise, read on.

Notes and Bibliography or Author-Date?

The  notes and bibliography style is popular in the humanities—including literature, history, and the arts. In this system, sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes. Each note corresponds to a raised (superscript) number in the text. Sources are also usually listed in a separate bibliography. This system is very flexible and can easily accommodate a wide variety of sources.

The  author-date style is more common in the physical, natural, and social sciences. In this system, sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and year of publication. Each citation in the text matches up with an entry in a reference list, where full bibliographic information is provided.

Aside from the way they cite sources in the text, the two styles are very similar. To compare them, follow the links at the top of this page, where you’ll find examples of the more common source types cited in each style.

If you’re not sure which style you should use, ask your instructor. You will also find more information here .

For a more detailed description of the styles and many more examples, see chapters 16 and 17 of the 9th edition of the Turabian manual for notes style and chapters 18 and 19 for author-date style.

Thursday, February 23: The Clark Library is closed today.

Chicago Style (17th Edition) Citation Guide: Books & Ebooks

• Introduction
• Journal Articles
• Magazine/Newspaper Articles
• Books & Ebooks
• Government & Legal Documents
• Secondary Sources
• Videos & DVDs
• How to Cite: Biblical & Catholic Sources
• How to Cite: Other
• Short Form & Ibid.
• Additional Help

Table of Contents

Book in print, book with editor(s) but no author, translated book, chapters, short stories, essays, or articles from a book (anthology or collection), an introduction, preface, foreword, or afterword, article in a reference book (e.g. encyclopedias, dictionaries).

Bibliography:

All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

All citations should use first line indent, where the first line of the footnote should be indented by 0.5 inches; all subsequent lines are not indented.

Footnotes should be the same font size and style as the rest of your paper.

See instructions for how to insert footnotes in Microsoft Word.

Authors/Editors

An author can be a person but can also be an organization, or company. These are called group or corporate authors.

If you are citing a chapter from a book that has an editor, the author of the chapter is listed first, and is the name listed in the in-text citation.

Capitalize the first letter of every important word in the title. You do not need to capitalize words such as in, of, or an.

If there is a colon (:) in the title, include what comes after the colon (also known as the subtitle).Capitalize the first word after the colon, even if it is a word such as in, of, or an.

The format of all dates is: Month Date, Year. e.g. September 5, 2012.

Whether to give the year alone or include a month and day depends on your source: write the full date as you find it there.

If no date is listed, use the abbreviation n.d. for "no date." 

When an edition other than the first is used or cited, the number or description of the edition follows the title in the listing. If you are using the first edition, you do not have to include that information in the citation.

Access Date

Chicago style does not recommend including access dates in the citation, unless no date of publication for the source may be located.

Kling, David William. The Bible in History: How the Texts Have Shaped the Times . New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

1. David William Kling, The Bible in History: How the Texts Have Shaped the Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 301.

Two or Three Authors

Jacobson, Diane L., and Robert Kysar. A Beginner's Guide to the Books of the Bible . Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1991.

1. Diane L. Jacobson and Robert Kysar, A Beginner's Guide to the Books of the Bible (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1991), 151.

Four to Ten Authors

For sources with four to ten authors, list all authors in the bibliography; in the footnote, list only the first author’s name followed by the phrase et al. (Latin for “and others”)

 Evans, Julie, Patricia Grimshaw, David Philips, and Shurlee Swain.  Equal Subjects, Unequal Rights:              Indigenous Peoples in British Settler Societies.  Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.

1. Julie Evans et al.,  Equal Subjects, Unequal Rights: Indigenous Peoples in British Settler Societies  (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), 52.

More than Ten Authors

For sources with more than ten authors, list the first seven authors in the bibliography, followed by  et al.. In the footnote, list only the first author's name followed by et al..

Holder, Arthur G. Christian Spirituality: The Classics . New York: Routledge, 2009. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/up/detail.action?docID=446822.

1. Arthur G. Holder, Christian Spirituality: The Classics (New York: Routledge, 2009), 30, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/up/detail.action?docID=446822.

Print Book:

Richard, Lucien, editor.  What are They Saying about the Theology of Suffering?  New York: Paulist Press, 1992.

1. Lucien Richard, ed.,  What are They Saying about the Theology of Suffering?  (New York: Paulist Press, 1992), 20.

Online Book:

Kidwell, Jeremy, and Sean Doherty, editors. Theology and Economics: A Christian Vision of the Common Good . New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. https://login.uportland.idm.oclc.org/login?url= http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9781137536518.

1. Jeremy Kidwell and Sean Doherty, eds., Theology and Economics: A Christian Vision of the Common Good (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 103, https://login.uportland.idm.oclc.org/login?url= http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9781137536518.

Boitani, Piero. The Bible and Its Rewritings . Translated by Anita Weston. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

1. Piero Boitani, The Bible and Its Rewritings , trans. Anita Weston (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 89.

Augustine. The Confessions of St. Augustine . Translated by Edward Bouverie Pusey. Waiheke Island, New Zealand: Floating Press, 1921. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/up/detail.action?docID=349865.

1. Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine , trans. by Edward Bouverie Pusey (Waiheke Island, New Zealand: Floating Press, 1921), 65, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/up/detail.action?docID=349865.

Deffenbaugh, Daniel G. and David L. Dungan. “The Bible and Ecology.” In The International Bible Commentary , edited by William R. Farmer, 314-323. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998.

1. Daniel G. Deffenbaugh and David L. Dungan, “The Bible and Ecology,” in The International Bible Commentary , ed. William R. Farmer (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998), 315.

When citing an introduction, a preface, a foreword, or an afterword, write the name of the author(s) of the piece you are citing. Then give the name of the part being cited, which should not be italicized or enclosed in quotation marks; in italics, provide the name of the work and the page range. Finish the citation with the details of publication.

Shepard, Paul. Introduction to Nature and Madness, 24-41. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.

1. Paul Shepard, introduction to Nature and Madness  (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998), 35.

If the writer of the piece is different from the author of the complete work, then start the citation with the author of the introduction or foreword, and write the full name of the principal work's author after the title of the work. 

Sacks, Oliver. Foreword to A Man without Words, by Susan Schaller, 9-12. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.

1. Oliver Sacks, foreword to A Man Without Words , by Susan Schaller, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 10.

For reference books that provide content in alphabetical order, in the footnote, use s.v. (Latin for “ sub verbo ) before the title of the entry that you are citing. (If you are citing more than one title, use the plural form, s.vv. ). Publisher information does not need to be included in the footnote.

Print Reference Book:

Camelot, P. T. "Ephesus." In The New Catholic Encyclopedia , edited by William J. McDonald, vol. 5, 457-458. New York: McGraw Hill, 1967.

1. The New Catholic Encyclopedia , s.v. “Ephesus.”

Online Reference Book:

Include a publication date or last updated date if available; otherwise, include an access date.

Hunt, M. J. "Red Sea." In The New Catholic Encyclopedia,  2nd ed., vol. 11, 962-963. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2003. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3407709364/GVRL?u=port18814&sid=GVRL&xid=c11723f0.

1. The New Catholic Encyclopedia , s.v. “Red Sea,” https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3407709364/GVRL?u=port18814&sid=GVRL&xid=c11723f0.

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General Model for Citing Books in the Chicago Notes and Bibliography System

Footnote or endnote (n):, corresponding bibliographical entry (b):, book by one author  , book by multiple authors.

Two or more authors should be listed in the order they appear as authors, and not necessarily alphabetically.

Translated work with one author

Book with author and editor.

In notes, CMOS prefers the abbreviation of “editor(s)” as “ed.” or “eds.,” and translator(s) as “trans.” In bibliographic entries, these abbreviations are not used. Instead, titles are spelled out in full. This information appears in  The Chicago Manual of Style , section 14.103.

Chapter from a single-authored book

CMOS supplies two correct forms for bibliographic entries. Both are noted here.

Or, in some cases, you may want to emphasize the entire collection in the bibliographic entry.

Contributions from an edited collection with various authored chapters

When citing work by a single author that appears in a book with multiple authors, the contributing author’s name is cited first, followed by the title of their contribution, the word 'in' and the title of the book, along with the name(s) of the editors, and other standard information .

Introduction, Preface, or Afterword in a Book

Unlike other citations for books, bibliographic entries of this kind include the page number range for the part cited.  

Anonymous works--Unknown authorship

Sources that have no known author or editor should be cited by title. Follow the basic format for "Footnote or Endnote" and "Corresponding Bibliographical Entry" that are exemplified above, omitting author and/or editor names and beginning respective entries with the title of the source.

Citing indirect sources

Because authors are generally expected to be intimately familiar with the sources they are citing, Chicago discourages the use of a source that was cited within another (secondary) source. In the case that an original source is utterly unavailable, however, Chicago requires the use of "quoted in" for the note:

Self-published or Privately Published Books 

Books published by the author should be cited according to information available on the title page or copyright page. In place of publisher, include language such as “self-published” (abbreviated as “self-pub” in notes, but not a bibliography) or “printed by the author” is usually appropriate. For self-published e-books, add the name of the application or device required to read the book or the name of the file format, or both.

• Library Catalogue

Citing secondary sources: Chicago/Turabian (17th ed.) citation guide

This guide is based on The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th ed. It provides examples of citations for commonly-used sources, using Notes and bibliography style only . For more detailed information consult directly The Chicago Manual of Style  (17th ed.) [ print ]. 

For the Author-date style, see the  Social sciences/sciences system .

Secondary sources (i.e. one source quoted in another)

The Chicago Manual encourages authors to look at the sources that they cite, however "[i]f an original source is unavailable... both the original and the secondary source must be listed."

More guidelines for citing this type of material can be found in section 14.260 .

Book referenced in a journal article

In this case, Simone de Beauvoir's book, The Second Sex , is referenced in a journal article by Judith Butler.

     1. Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: Vintage, 1974), 38, quoted in Judith Butler, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory," Theatre Journal 40, no. 4 (1988): 519.

Bibliography

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex . New York: Vintage, 1974. Quoted in Judith Butler, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory," Theatre Journal 40, no. 4 (1988): 519-31.

Article referenced in a book

To cite an article (Zukofsky's article) referenced in a book (Costello's book)

     1. Louis Zukofsky, "Sincerity and Objectification," Poetry 37 (February 1931): 269, quoted in Bonnie Costello, Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), 78.

Zukofsky, Louis. "Sincerity and Objectification." Poetry 37 (February 1931): 269. Quoted in Bonnie Costello, Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981).

• The style manual discourages writers from citing secondary sources. Whenever possible, the original source should be located and fully cited.
• In the footnote, start with the author and publication details of original work. Add the text " quoted in " and then add the author and publication details of the secondary work, the source you consulted. Make sure you use the correct format for a book or for an article ( 15.56 ).The original and the secondary source must both appear in the Bibliography.
• The style manual does not have an example for the Bibliography for secondary sources. The formatting of the examples are based on Turabian style, section 17.9.3.

IDS 101: The Most Important Novel: Chicago Style Guide

• Using the Library
• Articles/Databases
• Interlibrary Loan
• Why Cite Sources?

Chicago Style Guide

Style guide.

Library Guide to Citation Styles

• Style Guides Different disciplines use different citation styles; if you don't know which style to use, ask your professor. This library guide provides examples of various styles; printed style guides are located next to the reference desk in the Hatfield Library.

Zotero  is a free, open source browser app that collects, manages, cites, and shares your research sources. It lives right in your web browser, and has a similar design to the iTunes library. 

For help with Zotero contact: Bill Kelm, [email protected] or John Repplinger, [email protected]

For more information on Zotero, see our  Zotero Library Guide .  

The Chicago style tends to be used with the humanities (e.g. literature, history, arts). The library has an online subscription , and the print edition is located in the citation manual collection by the reference desk .

The Chicago Manual of Style presents two basic documentation systems, the humanities style (notes and bibliography) and the author-date system. Choosing between the two often depends on subject matter and nature of sources cited, as each system is favored by different groups of scholars.

The humanities style is preferred by many in literature, history, and the arts. This style presents bibliographic information in notes and, often, a bibliography. It accommodates a variety of sources, including esoteric ones less appropriate to the author-date system.

The more concise author-date system has long been used by those in the physical, natural, and social sciences. In this system, sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and date of publication. The short citations are amplified in a list of references, where full bibliographic information is provided.

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Willamette University Libraries

The Chicago Manual of Style Guide: Quoting and Paraphrasing

• Books & Single Printed Works
• Scholarly Journal Articles
• Magazines and Newspapers
• Reference Works
• Conference Papers, Interviews, & Personal Communications
• Digital Sources
• Artificial Intelligence & Chatbots
• Blackboard Content / Lecture Notes
• Quoting and Paraphrasing
• Author-Date vs. Notes and Bibliography
• References List / Bibliography

Direct Quotes

• Incorporate text less than 100 words into your text
• Place the quote in quotation marks
• Include page reference in parenthesis after quotation mark
• If quotation ends the sentence place parenthetical reference at end including page reference

While Fierro, Moreales, and Alvarez (2011) found that "no variables regarding the consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs associated with the experiences of being only a victim of road rage" (191), they did find a correlation with the consumption of alcohol and illicit drugs and being a perpetrator of road rage incidences.

While several studies have found a connection between alcohol and illicit drug consumption and perpetrating a road rage incident (Butters 2005, Ashbridge, 2006), one study (Fierro, Moreales, and Alvarez, 2011) has found "no variables regarding the consumption of alcohol or illicit drugs associated with the experiences of being only a victim of road rage." (191)

Quotation over 100 words

• Start a new paragraph
• Enter text as a free-standing block of text
• Indent text on left margin by one half inch
• Double space
• Place the reference with page number(s) at the end of the quote after punctuation
• Do not use quotation marks

Older men's somewhat delayed reduction in alcohol consumption relative to older women highlights the importance of health care providers continuing to monitor men's alcohol consumption. More broadly, out finding counter the widespread assumption that alcohol consumption and drinking problems invariably and rapidly decline past middle age and thus have limited relevance as late-life health issues, For many individuals, use of alcohol remains a consistent and important aspect of health status and social functioning even as they advance into later old age. (Brennan, Schutte, Moos, and Moos, 2011, 319)

Don't rely too heavily on the use of quotes in your paper.  Rather, employ the technique of rephrasing the cited idea into you own words.

Please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style for further information on quotation style.

Paraphrasing

Rephrasing another's ideas into you own words is known as paraphrasing.

With paraphrasing you still do need to site the original resource; however, if you are borrowing heavily from an author but still using you own words, add a reference. You are citing the ideas! Give credit where credit is due.

Secondary or Indirect Sources

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• Writing Tips

Chicago Referencing – Repeat Citations

• 2-minute read
• 29th June 2018

If you have a useful source text, you may need to cite it more than once in your work . And the Chicago Manual of Style has specific rules for doing this! Here, then, is our guide to repeat citations in Chicago style referencing .

Footnote Citations

In Chicago footnote referencing , after giving full source information in the first footnote, you can shorten subsequent citations of the same source to prevent repetition. These shortened footnotes should include the author’s surname, a shortened title, and the page(s) cited:

1. Alan C. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City: Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Insects and Plants in an Urban Landscape (London: Holt & Company, 1983), 13. 2. Esther Woolfson, Corvus: A Life with Birds (London: Granta Publications, 2008), 234. 3. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City , 102.

If citing two people with the same surname in your work, make sure to include the initial of the person you are citing again as well as their surname.

When citing the same source repeatedly, you can shorten the citation even further to just the author’s name and a page number:

1. Alan C. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City: Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Insects and Plants in an Urban Landscape (London: Holt & Company, 1983), 13. 2. Esther Woolfson, Corvus: A Life with Birds (London: Granta Publications, 2008), 234. 3. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City , 102. 4. Jenkins, 112. 5. Woolfson, Corvus , 235. 6. Woolfson, 117. 7. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City , 84.

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The key is making sure the source you’re citing is clear each time.

Author–Date Citations

Chicago referencing also has an author–date system , which uses in-text citations. To reference the same source more than once in this, all you have to do is give the same citation again:

Alan Jenkins (1983) describes how birds of prey survive in urban settings. He says that peregrine falcons are a “spectacular example of adaptive behavior” (Jenkins 1983, 13).

All you need to do with repeat author–date citations, then, is make sure they are consistent! And if you’d like any extra help making sure the referencing in your work is correct, we have expert proofreaders available. Sign up for a 500-word free trial to find out how our proofreading service works.

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / Chicago Style / How to Cite an E-book in Chicago

How to Cite an E-book in Chicago

Given the prevalence of e-books and the devices and platforms used to access them, it is likely that you may need to cite an e-book when completing a paper or project. Chicago style guidelines indicate that citations should specify if the book was consulted in an e-book format because of the potential for differences between versions. Besides adding information about the e-book’s format, e-book citations are very similar to  print books citations in Chicago  style. This guide will show you how to cite an e-book in notes-bibliography style using the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style .

Guide Overview

• Citing an e-book from an e-reader
• Citing an e-book accessed online
• Citing an e-book found in a database
• Citing an e-book on CD-ROM
• Citing an e-book with no page numbers
• What you need

Citing an E-Book from an E-Reader (Kindle, iPad, Nook, etc.)

Citation structure:.

1. First name Last name, Book Title (City: Publisher, year published), page or location number, E-Reader name.

Bibliography:

Last name, First name. Book Title . City: Publisher, year published. E-Reader name.

Citation Example:

1. Bram Stoker,   Dracula (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000), 25, Kindle.

Stoker, Bram.  Dracula . Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2000. Kindle.

Citing an E-Book Accessed Online

1. First name Last name, Book Title (City: Publisher, year published), page or location number, URL.

Last name, First name. Book Title . City: Publisher, year published. URL.

1. Carol J. Clover, The Medieval Saga (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982), 19, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctvn1t9s7.

Clover, Carol J. The Medieval Saga . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctvn1t9s7.

Citing an E-Book Found in a Database

If you access an e-book via a commercial or institutional database for which a URL is not available or would not be accessible for your reader, you should include the name of the database instead of a URL.

1. First name Last name, Book Title (City: Publisher, year published), page or location number, Database Name.

Last name, First name. Book Title . City: Publisher, year published. Database Name.

1. John Stolle-McAllister, Intercultural Interventions: Politics, Community, and Environment in the Otavalo Valley (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2019), MD-SOAR.

Stolle-McAllister, John. Intercultural Interventions: Politics, Community, and Environment in the Otavalo Valley . Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2019. MD-SOAR.

Note: Some e-books may be available online through your library’s databases or catalogs.

Citing an E-Book on CD-ROM

While it is no longer common to access e-books via CD-ROM, some textbooks or other similar books come with CD versions that you may need to cite. In such cases, the format should be placed at the end of the citation instead of the URL/database name/e-reader name.

1. First name Last name, Book Title (City: Publisher, year published), page or location number, CD-ROM.

Last name, First name. Book Title . City: Publisher, year published. CD-ROM.

1. Ana C. Jarvis, Basic Spanish , Spanish ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin College Division, 2007), chap. 1, CD-ROM.

Jarvis, Ana C.  Basic Spanish . Spanish ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin College Division, 2007. CD-ROM.

Citing an E-Book with No Page Numbers

When citing e-books in Chicago style (especially e-book versions of older books), it is preferable to use a version with scanned pages in order to be able to use the original page numbers. However, such versions may not be available. If you are citing an e-book that does not have page numbers, you should use whatever location information is available in place of the page number in a note. For example, you can use the chapter number or section heading of the passage you are citing.

The Chicago Manual of Style advises against using location indicators from your e-reader device in place of page numbers, as these may change based on text size and other settings set by individual readers. If an e-reader location indicator must be used, you should also include the total number of locations to help your readers find the cited passage on their own device. (For example, “loc. 45 of 1028.”)

1. First name Last name, Book Title (City: Publisher, year published), chapter number or section heading, format or URL.

Last name, First name. Book Title . City: Publisher, year published. Format or URL.

1. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926), chap. 2, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67138/67138-h/67138-h.htm.

Hemingway, Ernest.  The Sun Also Rises . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67138/67138-h/67138-h.htm.

What You Need

A citation for an e-book usually includes the following:

• Author name
• Edition information (if applicable)
• Publisher city
• Publisher name
• Publication year
• Page number or location information (in note only)
• E-reader name, database name, format, or URL

Chicago Formatting Guide

Chicago Formatting

• Book Chapter
• Conference Paper
• Musical Recording

Citation Examples

• Thesis or Dissertation
• Encyclopedia
• Sheet Music
• YouTube Video

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Chicago Manual of Style: Footnotes and In-Text Citations

• Chicago Manual of Style

Footnotes and In-Text Citations

• Bibliography
• Useful Links

When writing your Chicago-formatted paper, you will want to use evidence from the resources you have gathered to support your thesis statement. In Chicago, this can be done a couple of ways. But it ultimately depends on if you are using the notes and bibliography system or the author-date system. This should be determined by your professor. If it is not, ask them to verify. 

If you are using the notes and bibliography system, your direct quotes and paraphrased sentences will be cited with footnotes or endnotes. This means that your shortened citation will appear at the bottom of the page (footnote) or at the end of your paper (endnote) and will be noted in the body of your paper with superscript numbers. 

If you are using the author-date system, your direct quotes and paraphrased sentences will be cited in-text. This way of in-text citation will be very similar to that of APA in-text citations. 

This is where the two systems of Chicago vastly differ from each other and is extremely important that you are using the correct system for your citations. Be sure to click on the appropriate tab to see the examples. 

The Chicago Manual of Style

• Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide The Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide is a great resource to use when you need to see how to format a foot note and the citation quickly. This is good for basic examples. For more non-traditional resources, consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition or ask a librarian.
• Notes and Bibliography
• Author-Date

Book with One Author

For the first time that you use a footnote, write out the full note (see number 1). The next time you use the source, use the shortened note (see number 2).

1. First name Last name,  Title: Subtitle ( City of Publication: Publisher, Publication Date), page #.

2. Last name,  Shortened Title , page #.

1.  M ichael  Pollan ,   The Omnivore's Dream: A Natural History of Four Meals  (New York: Penguin, 2006),  88 .

2. Pollan,  The Omnivore's Dream , 92. 

Book with Multiple Authors

Two Authors

1. First name  Last name  and First name Last name,  Title: Subtitle  (City of Publication: Publisher, Date), page #.

2. Last name and Last name,  Shortened Title , page #.

1. Geoffrey C. Ward  and Ken Burns,  The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945 ( New York: Knopf, 2007), 50.

2. Ward and Burns,  The War , 102. 

Three authors

1. First name La s t name , First name Last name, and First name Last name,  Title: Subtitle ( City of Publication: Publisher, Date) page #.

2. Last name, Last name, and Last name,  Shortened Title , page #. 

1. Joyce Heatherton, James Fitzgilroy, and Jackson Hsu,  Meteors and Mudslides: A Trip through...

2.  Heatherton, Fitzgilroy, and Hsu,  Meteors and Mudslides ,... 

If there are  4 or more authors , cite only the name of the first listed author followed by 'et al' in the note. 

1. Claire Hacek et al., Mediated Lives: Reflections on Wearable Technologies.. .

2. Hacek et al.,  Mediated Lives ...

Book with Author Plus Editor or Translator

1. First name Last name,   T itle: Subtitle, trans./ed.  First name, Last name (City of Publication: Publisher, Date) page #.

2. Last name, Shortened TItle , page #. 

1. Gabriel García   Márquez ,  Love in the Time of Cholera,  trans. Edith Grossman (London: Cape, 1998), 66. 

2. García   Márquez,  Cholera , 33.

Chapter in an Edited Book

1. Chapter author's First name Last name,  "Title of Chapter," in  Title,  ed. First name Last name of Editor ( City  of  Publication: Publisher,

Date), page #. 

2. Chapter author's Last name, "Chapter Title," page #. 

1. Glenn Gould,  "Streisand as Schwarzkopf," in  The Glenn Gould Reader , ed. Tim Page (New York: Vintage, 1984), 310.

2. Gould, "Streidand as Schwarzkopf," 309.

Electronic Books

For books downloaded from a library or bookseller, the note should reflect specifically where it is located and in which format. 

1. First name Last name, Title ( City of Publication: Publisher, Date) location, Format.

2. Last name,  Shortened Title , location.  

1. Mary Ann Noe,  Ivory Trenches: Adventures of an English Teacher  (self-pub., Amazon Digital Services, 2016), loc. 444 of 3023, Kindle. 

2. Noe,  Ivory Trenches , loc. 500 of 3023.

For books consulted online or through a database, include the DOI (if available) or the URL (if DOI is not available) as part of the note.

1. First name Last name,  Title ( City of Publication: Publisher, date) location, doi: .

2. Last name, Shortened  Title , location, doi. 

3. First name Last name,  Title  (City of Publication, Publisher, date), page #, stable URL.

4. Last name, Shortened TItle ,  page #. 

​1. Mark Evan Bonds,  Absolute Music: The History of an Idea  (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), chap. 3,

https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199343638.003.0004. 

2. Bonds,  Absolute Music , chap. 11,  https://doi.org/10.1093/ acprof :oso/9780199343638.003.0012.

3. Karen Lystra,  Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years  (Berkelley: University of California Press, 2004), 59,

http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt8779q6kr/.

4. Lystra,  Dangerous Intimacy , 60-61. 

(Last name Date, page #).

(Pollan 2008, 64)

(Pollan 2008, 79-83)

(Pollan 2008, 88, 95, 103)

For a book with two authors:

(Last name and Last name Date, page #)

(Ward and Burns 2007, 195)

For a book with three authors:

(Last name, Last name, and Last name Date, page #)

(Heatherton, Fitzgilroy, and Hsu 2008, 250)

For a book with  four or more authors , cite only the last name of the first- listed author, followed by  et al.

(Last name et al. Date, page #)

(Hacek et al. 2015, 384)

(Last name of author Date, page #)

(García  M árquez 1988, 230)

Chapter of an Edited Book

(Last name of chapter author Date, page #)

(Gould 1984, 310)

Organization as Author

If there is an abbreviation for the organization, like WHO or NASA, then list the abbreviation first followed by the spelling of the organization name.

(Organization name Date, page #)

(BSI 1985, 23)

Journal Articles

• Author- Date

Physical Journal

1. First name, Last name, "Article Title," Journal Title  vol. number, issue no. (Publication Date): page number.

1. Donald Maletz, "Tocqueville's Tangents to Democracy,"  American Political Thought  4, no. 4 (Fall 2015): 615.

Articles Consulted Online

If you accessed an article through a database, then you will need to include the DOI (digital object identifier) or if there is no DOI available, the stable URL.  If there is no DOI, use the shortened stable URL in the place of the DOI.

1. First name Last name,  "Article Title,"  Journal Title  vol. number, issue no. (Publication Date): page number, https://doi.org/xxxxxx. 

2.  First name Last name,  "Article Title,"  Journal Title  vol. number, issue no. (Publication Date): page number, shortened URL.

1. Miriam Schoenfield, "Moral Vagueness Is Ontic Vagueness,"  Ethics  126, no. 2 (2016): 260-61, https://doi.org/10.1086/683541.

2. Frank P. Whitney, "The Six-Year High School in Cleveland,"  School Review  37, no. 4 (April 1929): 268,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1078814.

If the URL is very long and not available, list the name of the commercial database in lieu of the the URL. 

1.  First name Last name,  "Article Title,"  Journal Title  vol. number, issue no. (Publication Date): page number, name of Database.

1. Zina Giannopoulou ,  "Prisoners of Plot in José Saramago's  The Cave "  Philosophy and Literature  38, no. 2 (2014): 335, Project Muse.

2. Giannopoulou, "Prisoners," 337.  

This will be the same, whether it is a physical journal article or an article from a database. 

(Last name  Date, page #)

(Maletz 2015, 615)

Magazines and Newspapers

Physical magazine articles.

1. First name Last name, "Article Name,"  Magazine Title , Month and year of publication, page.

1. Beth Saulnier, "From Vine to Wine,"  Cornell Alumni Magazine , September/October 2008, 48. 

2. Jill Lepore, "The Man Who Broke the Music Business," New Yorker , April 27, 2015, 59. 

Magazine Articles Consulted Online

Include the URL at the end of the citation. If the URL is not available, then include the name of the database where you got the article. 

1. First name Last name, "Article Name,"  Magazine Title , Month and year of publication, [page if given], URL/ Database name.

1. Karl Vick,  "Cuba on the Cusp,"  Time , March 26, 2015, http://time.com/3759629/ cuba-us-policy /.

2.  Henry William Hanemann ,  "French as She Is Now Spoken,"  Life,  August 26, 1926, 5,  ProQuest . 

Newspapers are formatted the same way as magazine articles. 

1.  First name Last name, "Article Name,"  Newspaper Title , Month and year of publication [, edition if given].

1. Mike Ryoko, "Next Time, Dan, Take Aim at Arnold,"  Chicago Tribune , September 23, 1992. 

2. Christopher Lehmann- Haupt, "Robert Giroux, Editor, Publisher and Nurturer of Literary Giant, Is Dead at 94,"  New York Times ,

September 6, 2008, New York edition.

If the newspaper article was accessed online, include the URL at the end. If there is no URL and it was accessed via a database, include the database name. 

1.  First name Last name, "Article Name,"  Newspaper Title , Month and year of publication, URL.

2.  First name Last name, "Article Name,"  Newspaper Title , Month and year of publication, Database name.

1. David G. Savage, "Stanford Student Goes to Supreme Court to Fight for Her Moms,"  Los Angeles Times , April 27, 2015, Nation,

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gay-marriage-children-201504024-story.html.

2. John Meyers, "Invasive Faucet Snails Confirmed in Twin Ports Harbor,"  Duluth (MN) News-Tribune , September 26, 2014, EBSCOhost.  ​

Magazine and Newspaper Articles

Magazine and newspaper article in-text citations will be very similar to that of journal articles, no matter where they were accessed. 

If the page number is listed, include the page number.

If the page number is not listed, still include the last name and date.

(Last name  Date)  

1. "Title of Webpage," Title of Website, Owner or Sponsor of website, [last modified or accessed date], URL. 

1. "Apps for Office Sample Pack," Office Dev Center, Microsoft Corporation, updated October 20, 2015,

https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/office/Apps-for-Office-code-d04762b7.

2. "Privacy Policy," Privacy & Terms, Google, last modified March 25, 2016, http://www.google.com/policies/privacy. 

3. "Balkan Romani," Endangered Languages, Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, accessed April 6, 2016, http://www.endangered

languages.com/lang/5342. 

University of Chicago.  The Chicago Manual of Style . 17th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017. 

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• Last Updated: Aug 14, 2023 12:34 PM
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2024-2025 Common Reading Book: Help & Cite Your Sources

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How to Cite a Website in an Essay

July 23, 2024

Finding proper information when writing an essay is pretty important because the writer is kind of responsible for the info he is spreading within the society. At the same time, the writer must leave links where he has got this or that data. It is important to give credit to the original author when you borrow some info from another source, another website and place it in yours. That is why we all need to understand how to cite a website in an essay or how to cite a quote from a website in an essay. Below you will find a detailed description of using every type of the presented style guides.

Style Guides and Citation Systems

There are different style guides on websites. It may make you confused, but once you find out which guide you use, all you have to do is follow that format. Here are some style guides or citation systems we will review today:

• Chicago Citation Style Guide

APA Citation Style

APA stands for American Psychological Association and is used within social sciences the most frequently.

There are two types of APA citing structure.

The one is with an author and all you have to do is write an author’s name (Surname, the first letter of his name), then you have to write an exact date of publication and where you retrieved this info. In general, it will look like:

“Author, A. (Year, month and date of publication). Retrieved from URL”

The second one is without an author and you will have to make an author’s name replaced by an article title.

It will look like:

“Article title. (Year, month and date of publication). Retrieved from URL”

MLA Citation Style

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association. This organization has its own citation style that is used for humanities subjects (such as language, literature, liberal arts, etc.). If this method of citation you decided to use, you will have to write down an author’s last name, then the first one, which means it goes reversed. The article title is next, then you will have to write the title of an individual web page, the title of a website, the publisher, the date and the link (URL). If you want to know how to cite a website in an essay MLA, scroll down!

The basic format of MLA style will look this way:

“Author’s last name, Author’s first name. “Title of Web Page.” Website’s Title, Publisher, Exact Date, URL.

Chicago Citation Style

You can meet with this type on a website too and you have to know that it consists of two varieties:

• notes and bibliography
• author-date

The bigger part of people uses the one that is required by their publishers or the one that is used by people in their field.

The basic format of Chicago Citation Style looks like:

“Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. ”Page Title.” Website Title. Web Address (Retrieved Date Accessed)”

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Pro-Palestinian Groups Seek to Thwart Josh Shapiro’s Chances for Harris’s V.P.

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, an observant Jew, is seen as bringing plenty of upsides to the Democratic ticket. But some worry about setting off opposition to the Democratic ticket from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania speaking at a rally in support of Vice President Kamala Harris in Ambler, Pa., on Monday. Credit...

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By Jonathan Weisman

Photographs by Hiroko Masuike

Jonathan Weisman reported from Ambler, Elkins Park and Philadelphia, Pa.

• Aug. 1, 2024

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania took the stage at Wissahickon High School in the Philadelphia suburbs on Monday to the roars of his fellow Democrats, a campaign appearance and an audition all in one.

As he enthusiastically shouted out his support for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had dogged Democratic politicians last spring were nowhere in evidence. There was only the adoration of an audience from his native Montgomery County, which the Democratic ticket must carry by sizable margins in November to win Pennsylvania.

But as Ms. Harris prepares to name her running mate ahead of a rally on Tuesday in Philadelphia, those protests are very much part of the calculus surrounding Mr. Shapiro, who is believed to be on her shortlist of potential running mates.

Efforts by a motley collection of left-wing and pro-Palestinian activists to derail his nomination have presented the Harris campaign with a decision as the vice president prepares to make one of most significant choices of her career: Should she take the opportunity to stand up to her far-left flank in an appeal to the center of the party and to independents, or should she shy away from inflaming an issue that has divided and bedeviled the party — Israel’s war in Gaza?

“Harris needs to win Pennsylvania, signal moderation and reassure Haley voters that she’ll stand up to the left,” said Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat, a Jewish military veteran and an admirer of Mr. Shapiro, referring to Republican supporters of Nikki Haley. “The more the Twitter left piles on him, the more helpful he is to Harris.”

Mr. Shapiro, an observant Jew who speaks openly about his faith, has taken a position on the war that is not all that different from any of the other Democrats under consideration to be the vice president’s running mate, or from Ms. Harris’s.

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• Chicago Style Footnotes | Citation Format & Examples

Chicago Style Footnotes | Citation Format & Examples

Published on September 18, 2019 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on April 9, 2024.

The notes and bibliography style is one of two citation options provided by the Chicago Manual of Style . Each time a source is quoted or paraphrased , a superscript number is placed in the text, which corresponds to a footnote or endnote containing details of the source .

Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page, while endnotes appear on a separate page at the end of the text.

Pay attention to the punctuation (e.g., commas , quotation marks ) in your footnotes.

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Table of contents

Full notes and short notes, placement of footnotes, content of chicago footnotes, footnote examples for different source types, footnotes vs endnotes, frequently asked questions about chicago style footnotes.

There are two types of footnote in Chicago style: full notes and short notes.

Full notes contain the full publication details of the source. The first citation of each source should be a full note.

Full note example

1. Virginia Woolf, “Modern Fiction,” in Selected Essays , ed. David Bradshaw (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 11.

Short notes contain only the author’s last name, the title (shortened if longer than four words), and the page number (if relevant). They are used for all subsequent citations of the same source. It’s also acceptable to use “ ibid. ” instead to refer to the immediately preceding source.

Short note example

2. Woolf, “Modern Fiction,” 11.

The guidelines for use of short and full notes can vary across different fields and institutions. Sometimes you might be required to use a full note for every citation, or to use a short note every time as long as all sources appear in the Chicago style bibliography . Check with your instructor if you’re unsure.

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Footnotes should be used whenever a source is quoted or paraphrased in the text. They appear at the bottom of the relevant page, corresponding to reference numbers in the text. You can easily insert footnotes in Microsoft Word .

The reference number appears in superscript at the end of the clause or sentence it refers to. It is placed after any punctuation except a dash :

Johnson argues that “the data is unconvincing.” 1

Johnson argues that “the data is unconvincing” 1 —but Smith contends that …

Notes should be numbered consecutively, starting from 1, across the whole text. Your first citation is marked with a 1, your second with a 2, and so on. The numbering does not restart with a new page or section (although in a book-length text it may restart with each new chapter).

The footnote contains the number of the citation followed by a period and then the citation itself. The citation always includes the author’s name and the title of the text, and it always ends with a period. Full notes also include all the relevant publication information in parentheses (which varies by source type ).

If you quote a source or refer to a specific passage, include a page number or range. However, if the source doesn’t have page numbers, or if you’re referring to the text as a whole, you can omit the page number.

In short notes, titles of more than four words are shortened. Shorten them in a way that retains the keyword(s) so that the text is still easily recognizable for the reader:

1. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus , ed. M.K. Joseph (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 91. 2. Shelley, Frankenstein , 91.

Combining multiple citations

Do not place multiple footnotes at the same point in your text (e.g. 1, 2, 3 ). If you need to cite multiple sources in one sentence, you can combine the citations into one footnote, separated by semicolons :

1. Hulme, “Romanticism and Classicism”; Eliot, The Waste Land ; Woolf, “Modern Fiction,” 11.

Sources with multiple authors

Footnotes for sources with two or three authors should include all the authors’ names. When there are four or more authors, add “ et al. ” (Latin for “and others”) after the first author’s name.

Missing information

You sometimes won’t have all the information required for your citation. You might be missing page numbers, the author’s name, or the publication date.

If one of your sources (e.g., a website ) has no page numbers, but you still think it’s important to cite a specific part of the text, other locators like headings , chapters or paragraphs can be used. Abbreviate words like “paragraph” to “par.” and “chapter” to “chap.”, and put headings in quotation marks :

1. Johnson, “Literature Review,” chap. 2.1 . 2. Smith, “Thematic Analysis,” under “Methodology.”

If the source lacks a stated publication date, the abbreviation “n.d.” (no date) should replace the year in a full note:

1. Smith, Data Analysis (New York: Norton, n.d. ), 293.

If a text doesn’t list its author’s name, the organization that published it can be treated as the author in your citation:

1. Scribbr , “Chicago Style Citation.”

If you use a website name as an author, you may end up repeating the same information twice in one citation. Omit the website name from its usual place if you’ve already listed it in place of the author.

Short notes usually look similar regardless of source type—author, title, page number. However, the information included in full notes varies according to the source you’re citing. Below are examples for several common source types, showing how the footnote should look in Chicago format .

Chicago book citation

Italicize the book title. If the book states an edition (other than the first), include this and abbreviate it (e.g., 2nd ed., rev. ed.). Add the URL if you consulted the book online instead of in a physical copy.

Chicago book chapter citation

Sometimes you’ll cite from one chapter in a book containing texts by multiple authors—for example, a compilation of essays. In this case, you’ll want to cite the relevant chapter rather than the whole book.

The chapter title should be enclosed in quotation marks , while the book title should be italicized. The short note only contains the chapter title.

The author is the one who wrote the specific chapter you’re citing. The editor of the whole book is listed toward the end of the footnote (with the abbreviation “ed.”), and left out of the short note.

Chicago journal article citation

The article title should be enclosed in quotation marks, while the journal name should be italicized. Volume and issue numbers identify which edition of the journal the source appears in.

A DOI is a digital object identifier. This is generally more reliable than the URL when linking to online journal content.

Chicago website citation

The page title should be enclosed in quotation marks. Italicization is not used for website names.

If the publication date is unknown, you can instead list the date when you accessed the page at the end of the citation (e.g., accessed on September 10, 2019).

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All of the above information also applies to endnotes. Endnotes are less commonly used than footnotes, but they’re a perfectly valid option.

Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page they refer to.

• Footnotes allow the reader to immediately check your citations as they read …
• … but if you have a lot of footnotes, they can be distracting and take up space on the page.

Endnotes appear in their own section at the end of the text, before the bibliography.

• Endnotes take up less space in the body of your text and reduce distraction …
• … but they are less accessible, as the reader has to flip to the end to check each note.

Endnote citations look exactly the same as those in footnotes. Unless you’ve been told which one to use, choose whichever you prefer. Just use one or the other consistently.

Footnotes appear at the bottom of the relevant page.  Endnotes appear in a list at the end of the text, just before the reference list or bibliography. Don’t mix footnotes and endnotes in the same document: choose one or the other and use them consistently.

In Chicago notes and bibliography style , you can use either footnotes or endnotes, and citations follow the same format in either case.

In APA and MLA style , footnotes or endnotes are not used for citations, but they can be used to provide additional information.

In Chicago notes and bibliography style , the usual standard is to use a full note for the first citation of each source, and short notes for any subsequent citations of the same source.

However, your institution’s guidelines may differ from the standard rule. In some fields, you’re required to use a full note every time, whereas in some other fields you can use short notes every time, as long as all sources are listed in your bibliography . If you’re not sure, check with your instructor.

In Chicago author-date style , your text must include a reference list . It appears at the end of your paper and gives full details of every source you cited.

In notes and bibliography style, you use Chicago style footnotes to cite sources; a bibliography is optional but recommended. If you don’t include one, be sure to use a full note for the first citation of each source.

Page numbers should be included in your Chicago in-text citations when:

• You’re quoting from the text.
• You’re paraphrasing a particular passage.
• You’re referring to information from a specific section.

When you’re referring to the overall argument or general content of a source, it’s unnecessary to include page numbers.

In a Chicago style footnote , list up to three authors. If there are more than three, name only the first author, followed by “ et al. “

In the bibliography , list up to 10 authors. If there are more than 10, list the first seven followed by “et al.”

The same rules apply in Chicago author-date style .

To automatically generate accurate Chicago references, you can use Scribbr’s free Chicago reference generator .

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Caulfield, J. (2024, April 09). Chicago Style Footnotes | Citation Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 4, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/chicago-style/footnotes/

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