Recommended Chicago style guides:

A source is anything that gives you an idea or piece of information to use in your paper or project.

• A source can be a book, magazine, newspaper, letter, song, web page, blog, podcast, interview, email, Facebook update, or even your own class notes.

• A source can also be something visual: a TV program, movie, photograph, chart, diagram, or illustration.

Citing your sources tells your audience where your information came from. This allows them to:

• Go to your sources to learn more about the subject

• Understand how you arrived at your theory, idea or conclusion

• Know which ideas are your own original thoughts

Just as you wouldn’t want someone to steal your design for a chair, you need to give credit where it’s due when you use someone else’s ideas.

Online Resources

• Using Research | The Purdue OWL

• Citing Information | University of North Carolina

• What Is Citation? | Plagiarism.org

A citation, or reference, is the information that identifies a source.

Consider this: If someone tells you about a great movie and you want to see it, what information will you need to find it? Knowing that it’s a horror film won’t be enough. At the very least, you’ll need the title. If it’s a common title like Dracula, you’ll need more information like the name of the director or main actor, or the year it was released. That’s a citation.

Bibliographic information

The information that identifies a book or any other source is called bibliographic information. The pieces of bibliographic information needed to identify and find a source vary depending on the type of source. Here are some common types of sources and the information needed to identify them:

• Book: author or editor, title, edition, publisher, publication city and date

• Magazine or journal article: author, article title, magazine title, magazine issue, publication date, page numbers

• Movie: title, director, main performers, movie studio, release date

• Photograph, chart, illustration, or other graphic: creator (photographer, painter, etc.) or responsible party (for example: U.S. Geological Survey), title of the image, bibliographic information of the book, magazine or website where you found the image

• Web page: author or responsible party (for example: Design Institute of San Diego), page title, site title, URL

Why isn’t the URL enough for a web page citation?

Websites change constantly, and URLs change too. If a URL no longer works, your audience can search for the page using the author, page title and site title.

What if I can’t find a required piece of information?

Sometimes the information truly isn’t there: some articles don’t have authors listed, some product catalogs don’t include a date, and some websites don’t provide much information at all.

First, make sure that you have searched thoroughly for the missing information, and use your common sense. If you can’t find publication information in the front of a book, look in the back. If a web page doesn’t list an author, look for an “About” page. If a website doesn’t list a responsible party or a date when the information was last updated, consider whether you want to rely a nameless, un-dated source for your information.

If you decide that the source is reliable but you can’t find a piece of bibliographic information, simply leave that element out.

When you complete a paper or project, you will have a list of all the sources you used in your research. In Chicago style, this list is called the Bibliography.

Your Bibliography goes at the end — on the back of your project board, at the end of your paper or job book, or on the last slide of your presentation.

Organize your Bibliography alphabetically by the author’s last name. If there is no author, alphabetize by the first main word of the title.

Every time you use a quotation, a piece of information, or an image from another source, cite the source right where you use it, whether it’s on your project board or in your paper, job book or presentation.

In Chicago style, use footnotes or endnotes. The first time you cite a particular source, use the full bibliographic information and page number, either at the bottom of the page (a footnote) or at the end of the paper (an endnote).

Note that in a Chicago-style footnote or endnote, the page number is in the middle of the note.

The next time you cite that same source, you can use a shortened note. A shortened note includes only the last name of the first author, the first few words of the title, and the page number.

If there is no author, simply leave that element out. If there are no page numbers, simply leave that element out.

Tip: Use your software’s built-in footnote tool to insert footnotes or endnotes; the software will automatically format and number the notes correctly.

• In Microsoft Word, go to the References menu and click Insert Footnote or Insert Endnote.
• In Mac Pages, go to the Insert menu and select Footnote (you can convert it to an endnote later).
• In Google Docs, go to the Insert menu and select Footnote (there is no easy way to create endnotes in Google Docs).

Short quotations

For short passages of one sentence or less, use quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quotation. In Chicago style, put the footnote or endnote after the closing quotation mark.

Long quotations

For longer passages of more than one sentence, use a block quote. In Chicago style, a block quote is a separate paragraph, with all lines indented and single-spaced. Do not use quotation marks around a block quote. Put a period at the end of the quotation, and then add the note.

When you want to use someone else’s idea but put it in your own words, paraphrase or summarize. To paraphrase or summarize an idea, you need to condense or clarify that idea. It’s not enough to take someone else’s sentence and replace some of the words; you need to truly understand the idea and state it in a new way.

In Chicago style, put the footnote or endnote at the end of your paraphrase or summary, after the final period.

In Chicago style, only retrievable sources are listed in the Bibliography. Since a lecture heard in person is not retrievable by anyone else, do not include it in your Bibliography; the same is true for personal communications such as interviews and emails.

If you use a quotation or idea from a class lecture or other personal communication, do cite it using a footnote or endnote.

As with any quotation or paraphrase, a quotation or idea from a film requires a footnote or endnote, and an entry in the Bibliography.

In Chicago style, an image requires a footnote or endnote and an entry in the Bibliography, just like a quotation or paraphrase. Label each image with a caption that includes the bibliographic information of the image. Give each image a figure number (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc.).

If the image is a drawing, rendering, infographic, or other illustration, include:

• the title of the image
• the name of the artist or illustrator
• the date the image was created

If the image is a photograph of a building, include:

• the name of the building
• the name of the architect
• the location of the building
• the date the building was completed
• the name of the photographer
• the date the photograph was taken

If the image is a photograph or reproduction of a work of art, include:

• the title of the artwork
• the name of the artist
• the date the artwork was created
• the name of the owner of the artwork (often a museum)
• the name of the photographer
• the date the photograph was taken

If you don’t see all of this information in the caption of the image or the text around it, look for a separate list of image credits. This list is often called List of Illustrations, Illustration Credits, Image Credits, or simply Credits. In books, it may be either at the beginning or at the end of the book.

Note: Museums rarely credit an individual photographer.

At the end of the caption, insert a footnote or endnote citing the book, website or other source that you got the image from.

Citing an image from a book

In the example below, the caption contains the information about this reproduction of a work of art. The caption in the book provided the title of the work, the name of the artist, and the date it was created (the book gives the date of creation as 1794/1824 because it was created in 1794 and then substantially revised by the artist in 1824). However, the museum that owns the work was listed only in the List of Illustrations at the end of the book.

At the end of the caption is the footnote or endnote citing the book that this image came from.

Citing an image from a book when the artist is unknown

If the artist of the work depicted is unknown, leave that element out of the caption. Once again, the caption in the book provided the title of the sculpture and the date it was created, but the museum that owns the work was listed only in the List of Illustrations at the end of the book.

At the end of the caption is the footnote or endnote citing the book that this image came from.

Citing an image from a website

In the next example, the name of the museum that owns the artwork is the same as the title of the website that the image is from. The website does not have page numbers, so that element is left out of the footnote or endnote.

Most images on a museum’s website will depict works owned by that museum, but there are exceptions. For example, the Timken Museum put on an exhibition that included a painting on loan from the National Gallery in London, and there is a picture of that painting on the Timken’s website.

Citing an image from a website when the artist is unknown

In the next example, the artist of the work depicted is unknown, so we leave that element out of the caption. Once again, the name of the museum that owns the artwork is the same as the title of the website that the image is from.

There are many online tools that allow you to create and organize citations. Here are some of the most popular:

• BibMe
• EasyBib
• NoodleTools
• Quick Cite app for iPhone and Android
• RefME
• Zotero

Plagiarism is turning in someone else’s work, in any form, as your own. Plagiarism is also turning in your own work for another assignment.

Using someone else’s words or ideas without citing the source implies that those words or ideas are your own.

• This includes words and ideas from any source – magazines, books, newspapers, songs, TV programs, movies, web pages, blogs, charts, diagrams, emails, Facebook updates, etc.

Plagiarism is also:

• Including incorrect information in a citation
• Making up a citation
• Citing a source other than the one you used

You can even plagiarize your own work. Once you have turned in a paper or project for a grade, you can’t turn that same work in again for a new grade in a different class, unless you have explicit permission from both instructors.

Remember: “I didn’t mean to!” isn’t an excuse.

Common knowledge

Facts that “everyone knows” are considered common knowledge. You don’t need to cite a source for common knowledge.

• The fact that Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect is common knowledge; you don’t need to cite your source when you say this.

If you find a fact without a citation in at least three reputable sources, it is probably common knowledge.

• If you’re not sure, cite your source to be safe, or ask your instructor.

Not sure what counts as plagiarism?

Learn more about plagiarism and how to avoid it in one of these interactive tutorials. The MLA tutorial using a liberal arts example paper is recommended for DISD students and should take about 20 minutes to complete.

• Plagiarism Tutorial from Seneca Library

Learn more

These sites also have excellent information about plagiarism:

• Introduction to Plagiarism | Plagiarism Resource Site

• Plagiarism.org

• What is plagiarism? | Plagiarism Resource Site

To avoid plagiarism:

• Quote your sources correctly
• Paraphrase or summarize your sources correctly
• Cite every source correctly

Quote correctly

When you want to use the exact words of someone else, use a quotation. For short passages, use quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quotation. For longer passages, use block quotes. At the end of the quotation, add a footnote or endnote. Don’t forget to include the page number (if there is one).

Paraphrase and summarize correctly

When you want to use someone else’s idea but put it in your own words, paraphrase or summarize. To paraphrase or summarize an idea, you need to condense or clarify that idea. It’s not enough to take someone else’s sentence and replace some of the words; you need to truly understand the idea and state it in a new way. At the end of your paraphrase or summary, add a footnote or endnote. Don’t forget to include the page number (if there is one).

Cite every source correctly

Every time you use someone else’s words, ideas or images, cite your source. EVERY time. Make sure to match the correct source to each quotation, paraphrase or image.

Learn more